Do you pronounce the “th” in “month” or “monthly”? I pronounce it in all three words, but, as noted, it varies according to region and dialect (and maybe according to whether or not you’ve been drinking).
Anyway, there are exceptions, but English words rarely change their spellings to match their pronunciations. This is because
(1) The way a word is spelled in English is based not only on the way it’s pronounced, but also on the word’s origin, history, and relationship to other words.
(2) Pronunciations can vary widely between countries, regions, and subcultures.
(3) Spelling stability is a good thing. If lots of words changed their spelling, it would make it hard to read things written 20, let alone 200, years ago.
(4) It is, as the OP noted, hard to get people to change things they learned in childhood.
I wonder how the OP pronounces the singular month? Mun?
The th is very evident when I say either the plural or singular. Of course, I learned the word many years ago in S Cal. My two sons who are in their late 30s/early 40s pronounce the th; they were born and raised in N Cal.
Perhaps the variation is a regional thing, cultural thing and age thing…
I pronounce the “th” in both “month” and “monthly.” For me, it’s “months” that will get the “th” clipped to a “t” in rapid spontaneous speech. It’s hard for me to determine whether I always do it, or only sometimes do it. When I say “months” aloud now, I have a “th” there, but I’m fairly certain most of the time I’ll change it to “munce” in regular conversation.
I agree that it’s standard to not voice the *th *at the end of month. I’ll even grant that it’s likely that SoulFrost was mistaken. At the onset of a syllable, ð and θ are difficult to distinguish, but in the coda they’re quite distinct; since SF didn’t know the precise terms, s/he might easily have confused them. Comparing breath and breathe would have been more apt.
But I have to take implication with the implication that no one ends “month” with a ð. I’ve heard persons from Mississippi voice the ending fricative in words when I would not.
Month with a voiced dental fricative at the end would sound very strange. In fact, it’s rather difficult for me to say. Though I suppose it might work depending on what words you say after it.
I’m a little bit confused by that explanation, since there are two versions of ‘th’ and on is definitely soft (as in - thank, thought) and one is voiced, and therefore harsher (then, thine, that).
I’m immensely curious exactly how you pronounce it though. If you have a microphone, temporary online recording available here.
“Soft” is a poor description, after all. I pronounce it (in casual speech) more like–but not exactly like–the “th” in “the” or “they”. In third grade, the teacher called that a “soft th”, as opposed to the “hard th” of “thing”. I guess we had different teachers.
My pronunciation of just the word, without being part of a sentence, has it somewhere between the two sounds. I’ve just said the word about 400 times, and the sound seems to have more to do with tongue-placement than with voice.
So… I have been using “hard th” and “soft th” wrongly for most of my life (not that I’ve had occassion to use them often, mind). Thanks for setting me straight, everyone.