This has irrationally been bugging me for a long time. This time I see it in the latest Snuffy Smith comic strip. One of the hillbilly character’s speech characteristics is the shortening of “the” to th’. I used to see it in other even crappier comic strips, and would always try to say it out loud, but there was no way to shorten the spoken word. Why is it contracted?
This answer is pretty lame, but it’s the best I could think of:
The word “the” is pronounced differently depending on what comes after it. If it’s followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound, it’s pronounced with a long e, as in “the end” or “the ocean.” If it’s followed by a word beginning with a consonant sound, it’s pronounced with a schwa, as in “the beginning” or “the sea.”
By writing “What th’…” instead of “What the…” the writer was making sure you mentally pronounce it with a schwa rather than a long e.
It’s a shortening of “What the hell?” Since the word “Hell” was taboo, it had to be cut out. Leaving leaving off the “e” cut it even further and it soon became a convention.
the= /ði/ (before vowels) or /ðǝ/ (before consonants). Th’ = /ð/.
I don’t see what’s so difficult about pronouncing a consonant without a following vowel.
I have a friend on Facebook who does this and I scratch my head at the artistic “license”.
I keep pestering him about proper English to no avail.
Recent examples:
“m’self”
“M’Friend”
“mos’ fantubulous”
“jus’ say’n”
“M’Gran’Kid’s!”
“w’ll hafta try this”
“You always have a way of touch’n m’Soul!! N’ yer Smiles”
:smack:
“Nome sane?”
Not in this instance. It’s just the shortening of the to th’. And (imo) there’s just no way to make “the” sound any shorter.
I’ve seen “other” done as: “t’other”
That might just be your accent. My Northern California accent understands a clear distinction between the (thuh) and th’ (basically a “th” sound with a little puff of breath at the end).