Is th ever used not as a thorn outside of portmanteaus?

Question

Pretty much every occurrence of th I can think of see are pronounced as /θ/ or very similar sounds (sometimes slightly closer to f or s).

Still, does th appear in any English word pronounced as two distinct phonemes, /th/ ? I can think of some portmanteaus where the first word ends with t and the other begins with h (e.g. "pothead") but does it ever appear naturally as that pair of phonemes in words, not brought together as part of portmanteaus or blends?

other portmanteaus include knighthood, lighthouse, apartheid — Phil M Jones, Nov 28 '13 at 09:01
Funnily enough, I invariably pronounce apartheid with a th ;) — mplungjan, Nov 28 '13 at 09:19
Possible duplicate of Why is "Theresa" pronunced with the plosive /t/? That other question is actually younger, but has better answers IMO. — chirlu, Jan 07 '18 at 09:58

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 28 '13 at 08:54

12

In the geographical names: Thames, Thame, Theale (although local opinion appears to be divided on that one), Thailand, Lesotho.

In the names "Thomas", "Thomson", "Esther".

The only common noun, i.e. not a proper noun, I can think of is "thyme".

answered Nov 28 '13 at 08:54

Phil M Jones

6,286

long · Answer 2 · 2013-11-28T09:26:16.863

1

The river Thames, Thailand, thalweg (geographical term, although sometimes spelled talweg), Theresa are some.

edited Nov 28 '13 at 09:26

answered Nov 28 '13 at 08:57

long

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Is th ever used not as a thorn outside of portmanteaus?

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Is *th* ever used not as a thorn outside of portmanteaus?

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Is th ever used not as a thorn outside of portmanteaus?