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From: Danny Kersten <kerstend@natlab.research.philips.com>
Subject: Re: The pronunciation of the definite article 'the' just before a vowel
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Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 15:50:50 GMT
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Will Fitzgerald wrote:
...

> For example, consider:
> 
> "President Clinton is the undisputed choice to lead the United States
> of America in the next year."
> 
> Try saying this quickly; pretentiously; stressing each word, etc., and
> watch what happens to the pronunciation of 'the.'

I am not a native speaker of English, but in school we learned to
pronounce `the' as `thee' before a vowel (as it is spoken).

This leaves us with
  `thee' undisputed choice
  `thuh' United States
  `thuh' next year

Note that the `u' in United States is spoken as a vowel (in dutch you
would say the `u' is pronounced as joe (pronounciation you)).

-----------------------------------------------  ,'''',    ,'  , '
Danny Kersten                                  ,'     ,  ,'' '
mailto:kerstend@natlab.research.philips.com  ,'    , ' ,'   '      , ',
http://www.tue.nl/ipo/people/kersten        ''''''    '      '      '
