Pronunciation
“Dat” for “That”: TH-Stopping in the Function Words
The TH in “the” and “that” is a different sound from the one in “three”, and it splits differently. Sheffield's “dee dah” nickname comes from realising it as a D; Multicultural London English does the same. Elsewhere it may become a V between vowels, as in “bruvver”, while the initial sound stays put.
The question, as everyone in the survey sees it
In relaxed speech, what does the TH in “the” and “that” sound like?
Not careful speech — how it lands mid-sentence.
- A TH sound
- A D-like sound — “dat”
- A V-like sound — “muvver” for “mother”
- A Z-like sound — “zis” for “this”
- I use more than one
- I cannot tell
Which accents do what
Each accent profile in the survey has an expected answer to this question. Where a profile allows more than one answer, the region genuinely varies.
A TH sound
In these profiles, a th sound.
- Modern RP
- Bristol
- West Country
- Birmingham
- Mancunian
- West Yorkshire
- Geordie
- Central Scottish
- Highland Scottish
- South Wales
- Northern Irish
- Cork
- East Irish
- Southern Appalachian
- New York City
- California
- Texas
- Boston
- Chicago
- Newfoundland
- Australian
- New Zealand
- Canadian
- South African
- Indian
- Kenyan
- Melbourne
- Ghanaian
- Midland
- African American
- Hawaiian
- Philadelphia
- New Orleans
- Vancouver
- Perth
- South Indian
- Liberian
- Sri Lankan
A D-like sound — “dat”
In these profiles, a d-like sound — “dat”.
- South Yorkshire
- Jamaican
- Bajan
- Nigerian
- Pakistani
- Filipino
- Singaporean
- Hong Kong
- Trinidadian
- Malaysian
- African American
- Hawaiian
- Liberian
- Spanish-accented English
- German-accented English
- Italian-accented English
- Russian-accented English
- Brazilian Portuguese-accented English
A V-like sound — “muvver” for “mother”
In these profiles, a v-like sound — “muvver” for “mother”.
- Brazilian Portuguese-accented English
A Z-like sound — “zis” for “this”
In these profiles, a z-like sound — “zis” for “this”.
- French-accented English
- German-accented English
- Russian-accented English
- Japanese-accented English
- Mandarin-accented English
I use more than one
In these profiles, i use more than one.
Why this question is in the survey
Pronunciation questions carry more weight in the scoring than vocabulary questions do, because they are much harder to change deliberately. People move house and pick up new words; the vowel system learned in childhood tends to stay. Every answer is stored with a coarse map cell for the town you grew up in, and a region is coloured in once at least two people there have answered.
See the full question bank, the accent profiles these answers feed, or how the scoring works.