This question came up recently (again): Why do native English speakers sometimes pronounce the word “the” as rhyming with “see”, and other times pronounce it to rhyme with “duh”?
The most common pronunciation of the is with schwa, to rhyme with duh.
HOWEVER…people do use both. Let’s look at examples to understand why.
First, let’s look at pronouncing THE in such a way that we draw maximum attention to the idea of uniqueness.
“Dr. Jones isn’t just one of the doctors in town, he’s THE doctor.” = Dr.Jones isn’t just one of thuh doctors in town, he’s THEE doctor.”
The second clause has a THE that is more than just a puny little grammar article! It has a bigger-than-usual role in creating the meaning of the sentence. By altering its pronunciation, it now conveys uniqueness, or specialness. To maximize this idea of uniqueness, speakers often combine the following:
1) pronounce THE with a noticeably longer vowel;
2) pronounce it with a different vowel [ee];
3) add more emphasis or power;
4) use a higher pitch.
All these strategies combine to express, in the sentence above, that Dr. Jones is the ONLY doctor in town. Native speakers choose from the above list, creating the emphasis with the strategies they are most comfortable with.
Here’s a YouTube clip of Rachel Maddow, TV reporter, using pitch, duration and power, without changing the vowel itself, to convey uniqueness.
Time Codes for 3 of Rachel’s “the’s”:
[0:52] the Republicans
[0:58] the health care bill
[1:01] THE heroes of Sept. 11
Reason #1: the pronunciation that requires the least effort is the one that will be said.
It is a fact that schwa [uh] requires less muscle action to pronounce than [ee]. The vowel in “see” takes longer to say, and requires more jaw, tongue, and lip movement, than a schwa (e.g. “duh”), which should have absolutely no jaw, tongue, or lip movement to create…only the vocal chords vibrate as air passes over them. It is our most relaxed sound.
We usually don’t want to draw attention to such a word as small and unimportant as “the”; it’s seldom a critical part of our message, but we are required by our grammar to say it, so we simplify it as much as possible. It’s not possible to reduce a vowel to something less than schwa, so schwa is what we use.
If it takes less effort to rhyme “the” with “duh”, then why do people use the [ee] sound (beyond “the only doctor” example)?
[ee] may be easier to pronounce because of sounds that come before it, or sounds that follow it. Because there are moments in speaking when the environment around that vowel (by that, I mean the other vowels or consonants before and after it) makes it easier to create an [ee] sound and then slide along to the initial sound of the next word. The most common occurrence of this is just before another similar-sounding vowel. For example, in the phrase “in the evening”, it’s easier for many of us to pronounce “the” to rhyme with “see”, rather than “duh”. Try it both ways. Using the longer, more forward [ee] sound offers a chance to make a liaison, or glide, between “the” and “evening”. You can easily connect the two words without breaking between them.
Here’s a second example of the [ee] sound used in this way. Say this phrase out loud: “due to the interest”. Because the word “interest” follows “the”, and because it begins with the letter i, (a sound that is similar to [ee]), for some people it’s just easier to glide, or liaise, from that [ee] sound to the /i/ of “interest”, than it is to go from an [uh] sound to to the /i/ of “interest”. This is merely a matter of taste. Or maybe I should say a matter of feel, because one of these ways will feel more comfortable to the speaker.
There’s another reason why [ee] might be used: to stress important new information. In the following clip on YouTube, you can hear and compare a British journalist interviewing an American at the World Forum.
What to listen for:
1. The British interviewer uses both. [0:02/ee].
2. The American begins using [ee] nearly all the time during the introduction to his topic [0:0–0:25], and after that, he relaxes his [ee] to [uh] sometimes.
Here’s the transcript with time codes.
[0:10] “Well, it means many things to many people but to simplify things we should look at [0:14] the global agenda today on two axes. One, on [0:18] the vertical side, we can look at what are [0:19] the issues that require collaboration? And on [0:24] the horizontal, we can look at [0:25] the issues that require innovation.”
Discussion:
did you notice that three out of the five times, the American used schwa [uh]. The two times he used [ee] are before a word starting with [i] – “issues”. So it’s possible that he used [ee] because it was more comfortable. But it may be that he uses [ee] before his two main speaking points, i.e. “the issues that require collaboration” and “the issues that require innovation.” In public speaking, when we want to present and associate two points, we do various things to make them more noticeable to the listener: we may raise the pitch and/or increase the duration to give stronger emphasis. So using [ee] may be one more strategy the speaker uses, to put more acoustic emphasis on the beginning of these 2 important noun phrases.
One of the ways fast speakers can help their listeners follow them, is to provide acoustic signals for their listeners, to ensure their message is understood. I think this speaker either intuitively understands, or has learned, to control and use multiple acoustic tools to make sure he’s understood, including switching phonetic sounds, to ensure he’s understood.
It’s good public speaking, to use all the strategies you have available! After all, without their listeners, public speakers are just talking to themselves!