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Do you pronounce the th in sixth? | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4468 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English*, German | Message 1 of 33 09 December 2012 at 2:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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I speak US English as a native speaker. I heard a British person pronounce "sixth" and she pronounced the th sound at the end. It sounded strange to me. I pronounce the th in fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and so on, but I make an exception for sixth. I pronounce it like "sixt". I wonder if I use a regionalism. I grew up in Texas. As far as I can remember, that's how it's said there. I've lived in several states since then and I haven't noticed people pronouncing the th in sixth, but I haven't really listened for it either.
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| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4669 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 33 09 December 2012 at 3:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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sixt? I don't think I've ever heard that, and I lived in Texas for several years. The th is definitely pronounced by most
native speakers I talk to. Do you pronounce the th in clothes? Edited by Wulfgar on 09 December 2012 at 3:28am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4608 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 3 of 33 09 December 2012 at 5:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yep. I always pronounce the 'th' and I don't think I've ever heard 'sixt'.
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| jhaberstro Senior Member United States Joined 4391 days ago 112 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 4 of 33 09 December 2012 at 6:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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Count me as another native speaker who pronounces the 'th' (nor have I heard it pronounced sixt).
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| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6435 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 33 09 December 2012 at 7:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've never heard "sixt."
I don't think I necessarily pronounce a clear "th," but I definitely elongate the "s" sound at the end of the word (cuz "x" is pronounced like "ks", "six" is pronounced like "siks"). So maybe I kind of say it like: "He came sikss place." But I think it also depends on what sound follows it. Like if I am saying "that's the 6th apple you've eaten today!" I would more clearly pronounce the "th". If it's the last word in a sentence, then I definitely pronounce it cuz there's nothing after it to get in the way lol. I can probably make a recording if you want. We should make recordings of us saying the following sentences: "He's in 6th grade" (note: Canadians avoid this problem by saying "grade 6" :) ) "That's the 6th apple you've eaten today." "He came in 6th place." "He came in 6th." Edited by IronFist on 09 December 2012 at 7:20am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5254 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 33 09 December 2012 at 8:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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In linguistics, this is known as assimilation. Consonants sometimes change in relation to the sounds before or after them (in this case: the [s] prior). It is hard to get native speakers to acknowledge it, because they don't have any awareness of it, but it happens regularly. Other examples in English include nasalizing vowels before [m] [n] [ng] sounds, and in German there is a shift in fricative sound used in words like Bach.
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5128 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 33 09 December 2012 at 9:47am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't think "clothes" is the best example to trot out. First of all, the "th" in clothes is voiced, whereas in sixth it's not. Second, the "th" in clothes follows a vowel, with "sixth" it follows a consonant cluster. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6435 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 33 09 December 2012 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know a LOT of native speakers who don't pronounce the "th" in "clothes." It's pronounced the same as "close" (like "close the door"), especially in fast speech. That being said, I agree with your post. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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