th & kh

[Anne59]

I have downloaded an IPA phonetic chart but now I have seen the letters t and k with a small letter h next to it.

I thought that the th would be the sound in the word think but on the IPA chart that sound is like a zero with a line through it.

Can anyone please explain these to me?

Thanks

[Teia]

I have downloaded an IPA phonetic chart but now I have seen the letters t and k with a small letter h next to it.

I thought that the th would be the sound in the word think but on the IPA chart that sound is like a zero with a line through it.

Can anyone please explain these to me?

Thanks

Hi

Th sounds like in the word think, and its phonetic representation is - as you have already noticed- like a zero with a line through it! - a dental fricative consonantal sound :θ

θ is the simbol representing the letters th in words like: thing, thought, thin, thick, etc.


Here is a thorough explanation on this item:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_fricative

[BobK]

I have downloaded an IPA phonetic chart but now I have seen the letters t and k with a small letter h next to it.

I thought that the th would be the sound in the word think but on the IPA chart that sound is like a zero with a line through it.

Can anyone please explain these to me?

Thanks

"th" is [ɵ]. The t and k you've seen, and p, are followed by a little h to mark a little burst of air - confusingly called 'aspiration'. If you hold a thin piece of paper (air-mail paper or tissue or a cigarrete paper) in front of your lips when you say "pin" and "spin" you'll notice that the first is aspirated*. This is hard to hear, and if you try to reproduce it you'll probably end up sounding less native-like than when you started - so don't try. We don't; it just happens.

The absence of aspiration can make a voice sound slightly different. Audrey Hepburn didn't aspirate her stop consonants, betraying her Dutch ancestry.

b

*If you know what I'm talking about, [ph] and [p] are allophones of the /p/ phoneme in English.

[Teia]

The absence of aspiration can make a voice sound slightly different. Audrey Hepburn didn't aspirate her stop consonants, betraying her Dutch ancestry.

Hi BobK

Very interesting approach! I have always thought that Audrey Hepburn had Danish ancestry. Mea culpa

[BobK]

The absence of aspiration can make a voice sound slightly different. Audrey Hepburn didn't aspirate her stop consonants, betraying her Dutch ancestry.

Hi BobK

Very interesting approach! I have always thought that Audrey Hepburn had Danish ancestry. Mea culpa

You may well be right (I'm always confusing Danish/Dutch). Or my source may have got it wrong (Dan Everett, a linguist, but not writing for a very scholarly market!)

b