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In the months leading up to the UK Referendum, I've heard the phrase "the E.U." thousands of times, and I've noticed that nearly all media-speakers pronounce it as /ðəʔiːjuː/. My memory, and my old dictionary that uses the IPA, tells me that most Brits used to say /ði.iːjuː/ - that is, /ðə/ becomes /ði/ before a vowel. Is this a recent change?

David Garner
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    Possible duplicate of What is the pronounciation of "the" before the vowel "e"? If you want more or different information than there is in my answer to that question, please edit your post to describe what else you would like to know and sent me a comment and I'll remove my close vote. – herisson Jun 24 '16 at 08:11
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    Not exactly a duplicate, I think, because my question was, Is this a recent change? – David Garner Jun 24 '16 at 08:14
  • That's true, it is different in that way. I'll leave the link, but I've retracted the close vote. – herisson Jun 24 '16 at 08:15
  • Possible duplicate of What-is-the-pronounciation-of-the-before-the-vowel-e – Edwin Ashworth Jun 24 '16 at 16:57
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    @EdwinAshworth possible duplicate of sumelic's comment. –  Jun 24 '16 at 18:06
  • @no comprende You'd better tell the automatic commenter; I just close-voted citing this as a duplicate. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 24 '16 at 22:02
  • @PhilSweet: I must be missing something - what's the area of duplication between pronouncing "i18n" and pronouncing "the E.U."? Or are you being facetious and I'm being boringly literal? – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Jun 25 '16 at 13:06
  • @Chappo I got bit by the machinery. I was voting to close for duplication, and though I had selected the same dup as Edwin. Either I missed, or the autobot has a glitch. – Phil Sweet Jun 25 '16 at 13:09
  • I'm greatly relieved - any other option might have impacted badly on my self-esteem. – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Jun 25 '16 at 13:15
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    I'm left shaking my head at how asking a simple question can generate such chaos. Could I repeat, my question was "Is this a recent change?", not "How is 'the' pronounced?" – David Garner Jun 25 '16 at 14:54
  • Yeah, it is odd that this occurred twice. I think you should edit the post itself to add more explanation of how this question is not a duplicate. People don't always read all of the comments. – herisson Jun 25 '16 at 20:01
  • The autobot certainly does not. We need a smarter one. But I just automatically comment on all kinds of things, myself. It told me to "Comment Everywhere" so I do. –  Jun 25 '16 at 22:03
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    I think lots of people use /ðə/ before /iː/, but /ði/ before other vowels. I don't know how long this has been going on, but sticking two /i/ vowels right next to each other isn't the most euphonious pronunciation. Is your memory of /ði/ before vowels in general, or /ði/ specifically before /iː/? – Peter Shor Jun 28 '16 at 13:48
  • Good point, @PeterShor. My memory is that it was general [because I've always been a language-geek though not a linguist, I can actually remember being told about it in early primary school!]. But I must now listen out for how people say, (e.g.) 'the egg', 'the ant', etc. – David Garner Jun 28 '16 at 13:57
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    @EdwinAshworth David seems to be asking about regional variation, and he's quite correct that hard attack is being used more an more instead of a happy vowel when the indefinite article is followed by a vowel. – Araucaria - Him Jun 29 '16 at 12:31
  • Thanks, @Araucaria. 'Hard attack' and 'happy vowel' are new terms to me. Though I guess you meant definite article? – David Garner Jun 29 '16 at 12:43
  • @DavidGarner Yes. I did indeed. Although, on a related note, a very few young people in London have started using a followed by a hard attack instead of an recently! – Araucaria - Him Jun 29 '16 at 14:19
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    Which revives a 60-year-old memory of my primary teacher, checking my written work, and saying "A egg? A egg? Is that right, David?" [I guess that's why I subconsciously used 'egg' in my previous comment!] – David Garner Jun 29 '16 at 14:23
  • @Araucaria The question is certainly asking about the pronunciation of "the" before the vowel "e". As to when a question becomes re-askable on ELU because the acceptable answer has changed (to some degree at least), that's a matter for meta. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 29 '16 at 15:28
  • @EdwinAshworth Granted, but this question is not about how one should pronounce the before a vowel. – Araucaria - Him Jul 04 '16 at 10:42
  • @Araucaria You're saying e isn't a vowel? Or it stops being one (and perhaps has some weirdly different pronunciation) in an initialism? – Edwin Ashworth Jul 04 '16 at 18:18
  • @EdwinAshworth Sorry for the previous rambling version of this comment. The pertinent words there in the other question, it seems to me, are "should pronounce". The question here is, is the observed (correctly) phenomenon of using the with happy vowel before a following vowel a new phenomenon. – Araucaria - Him Jul 05 '16 at 07:59

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To cut through the comment chaos and address the question:

You can say "the" like "thee" or "thuh", interchangeably. This isn't a recent development and as far as I know it's not particularly associated with a particular region. A given individual might use both on separate occasions.

I believe that "thee" is favoured in "Received pronunciation", which is a now largely discredited guide to how English is "supposed to be pronounced", derived from listening to how the royal family speaks. That is to say, the Queen would most likely say "thee". Even the BBC (a good touchstone for any British English pronunciation questions) don't insist that their presenters speak like this, however, any more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

Choice of "thee" or "thuh" generally depends on the word that follows. Words starting with a vowel sound will be more likely to have "thee" before them, as it's an easier transition. For example "Thuh team" is easier to say than "thee team" and "thee orange" is easier to say (or perhaps easier to hear clearly) than "thuh orange", which would sound too much like "thorange". Hence, people will tend to say "Thee E.U.", as it's just more natural to say than "thuh E.U."

Glorfindel
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Max Williams
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