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What is the pronunciation of “the”?

How to correctly pronounce the the in The United States?

Is it the the that’s pronounced /ðə/, or is it the the that’s pronounced /ðiː/, and why?

I often hear the second pronunciation, but I think that since the U in United States is not a vowel sound, it should be the first pronunciation.

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CodeBlue
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  • It may depend on whether you want to stress the the, so as to make clear you are not just talking about any United States such as los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. – Henry Aug 30 '12 at 18:29
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    What do you mostly hear? – Barrie England Aug 30 '12 at 18:38
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    I don't see any good reason to downvote the question. Maybe you guys are simply being mean. – CodeBlue Aug 30 '12 at 18:50
  • @BarrieEngland I mostly hear the second one, but it's not about what I hear, but about what is correct. – CodeBlue Aug 30 '12 at 18:51
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    What do you mean by 'correct'? – Barrie England Aug 30 '12 at 19:03
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    The reasons for downvotes are that 'This question does not show research effort; it is unclear or not useful'. You mention no research at all, though the pronunciation of the is in every dictionary and there already is a question on this topic; if you have a reason to think 'The United States' grammatically different from 'The anything else', you don't mention it, let alone make it clear; and since there is no such thing as 'correct' pronunciation, it cannot be useful except as a poll. Not my downvote, but I do think that if you see no reason to downvote, you need to look a bit harder. – Tim Lymington Aug 30 '12 at 19:06
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    @TimLymington Added my "research" - i.e. what I already knew. Is that good enough? – CodeBlue Aug 30 '12 at 19:10
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    @BarrieEngland I think he’s just missing the schwa, and so perceiving the /j/ at the start of as United as an /i/ at the end of the. – tchrist Aug 30 '12 at 19:53
  • @tchrist: Yeh, could be. – Barrie England Aug 30 '12 at 19:58
  • This is a serious matter -- if the question's duplicate could garner 16 up votes (todate), where's the reason to down vote this? Closing as duplicate is an entirely different issue. I for myself would insist on up voting it. – Kris Aug 31 '12 at 08:42
  • @Kris: there is, of course, a huge discussion on meta about this. But as I commented on http://meta.english.stackexchange.com/a/3004/8019, downvoting is a personal preference (as is upvoting), and it's no use expecting to receive (or disseminate) official guidance. My own opinion is that the original question should have been downvoted (particularly in view of the duplicate) but the edit improved it to neutral, both by clarifying and showing OP had actually done some work. – Tim Lymington Aug 31 '12 at 10:47

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Because United States begins with a glide /j/. and the schwa of an unstressed the is easy to miss, you may be confusing a hardly heard schwa for a long sound.

So someone saying /ðə.juːˈnaɪtəd/ might come out sounding a bit like /ðjuːˈnaɪtəd/, and you might be perceiving that as /ðiːjuːˈnaɪtəd/ when it’s really not.

tchrist
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  • I think the difference between the two is something of a continuum anyway, so identifying "points along the way" with specific symbols can be potentially misleading at the margins (if indeed there are any "margins" :) – FumbleFingers Aug 30 '12 at 21:03