English has two interdental fricatives, the voiced fricative of this and the voiceless fricative of through. Though they are phonemic, this was not always the case. The voiced interdental fricative used to be restricted to word-medial position as in mother. In word-medial position the voiced fricative is more common than in other positions.
A few minimal pairs can be given to illustrate that the interdental fricatives are phonemic. They include either/ether, teethe/teeth and this'll/thistle. With mouth, the noun has a voiceless fricative and the verb has a voiced one.
Most words that begin with an interdental fricative have the voiceless one. The voiced fricative occurs in pronouns (they, them), adverbs (there, then, this, that) and in the definite article the.
In word-medial position the voiced fricative is common. However, the voiceless fricative occurs in words such as healthy, method and sympathy.
Most words that end with an interdental fricative have the voiceless one. Many verbs, though, have the voiced fricative. This is the case in bathe, clothe and breathe.
Many plurals can be realized with either the voiced or the voiceless fricative. Examples include mouths, oaths and paths. The plural clothes is always pronounced with the voiced fricative and numerals such as eighths and twelfths are always pronounced with the voiceless one.
Though English has two phonemes which are interdental fricatives, they differ in their relative distribution. The voiceless fricative is more common word-initially and word-finally, and the voiced fricative is more common word-medially. Many plurals can be realized with either the voiced or the voiceless fricative. In an earlier stage of English, only the voiceless fricative was phonemic and the voiced one was restricted to word-medial position.
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