SHARPS, FLATS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 5

SHARPS, FLATS

(Specially written /or ‘The Press” by ARNOLD WAI J. » H ow ought we to ; pronounce ‘youths’? Should the “th” he tint ns in “this” anti “that" or sharp as in “thick” and “thin”? The spelling is no guide as we have never tried to distinguish these two sounds in our writing, and one result has been that many English speakers, probably a majority, do not realise that there is any difference between them. So it does not surprise me when 1 hear over the air “youths" pronounced with the sharp “th” though that pronunciation is wrong. The "flat" or “voiced" sound can he spelt with con ventional symbols only with “dhz” as you find in those dictionaries which indicate pronunciations with conventional symbols, not phonetic. In phonetics “th" and “dh" are represented with other symbols adapted from AngloSaxon. Now if we examine the list of words —mostly nouns—which end in “th" and look at their plural forms we shall find a “pretty kettle of fish;"! no general rule can be deduced; anarchy is the result. There are, 1 reckon. 30 words in the list and of these 19, a handsome majority, are in the “sharp" or “th” list, and 11 iti the “dhz” list with one word represented in both, that is “cloths” with “th" and 'clothes" with “dhz.” This is the parade, plural i forms with “ths" in alphabetical order: births, breaths.) cloths, deaths, faiths, firths. I Goths, heaths. healths, hearths. lengths. moths, months, myths, plinths, smiths strengths (as used by engineers), and wraiths. Plural forms with “dhz"; baths, booths, clothes, laths, months, oaths, paths, sheaths, truths, wreaths and youths. The degree of confusion may be gauged by comparing e.g. wreaths (dhz) and wraiths; mouths (“dhz") and months; sheaths (“dhz") and heaths. But it will be noticed that all the words in the “dhz" list have long vowels or dipthongs those in the “th” lists are both short and long so that it is in this list that the inconsistencies appear. 1 excluded “Sleuths" from the list because it is as yet hardly established as Standard English as the singular “sleuth” is. The only mistakes in the pronunciation of words in

this group that I have observed are “youths" with “ths” instead of “dhz” and booth pronounced to ryhme with "tooth" instead of “smooth," a very common error. A large part of the trouble is caused by the adoption by our ancestors of “th” as the symbol for the single sound it is used to represent for. of course, it docs not stand for “t" followed by “h" which we have in hot-house or fat-head. The Anglo-Saxons represented it by two different symbols, the Latin “d" with a cross and an old Runic letter which they called “thorn." It is a pity that they did not apportion the two symbols to the two sounds, but used both indiscriminately and it is far too late to do anything about it now. We must wait for the day of phonetic spelling and that may never come. Dialogue . I receive the following report of a dialogue between G. G. (my great-grand-daughter) and Y. F. (her young friend): G. G. You know I have a grandfather, he is really a great-grandfather, and he’s very very famous!—also he’s the oldest man in the whole world—that’s partly why he’s famous). V. F. What’s the other part of why he’s famoust? G. G. Well, you see. he writes these old. dusty books that have such clever words and things in them that no one can understand them—only him. Y. F. What do the words say? ’ G. G. Oh. you know, things ■ like grm, chrnk, hrrmp etc. Such is fame.