Th-alveolarization

Th-alveolarization is a process that occurs in some African varieties of English where the dental fricatives /ð, θ/ merge with the alveolar fricatives /z, s/. It is an example of assibilation.

It is often parodied as ubiquitous to French- and German-speaking learners of English, but is widespread among many foreign learners of English, because the dental fricative "th" sounds are not very common among world languages.

For some speakers of African American Vernacular English, /θ/ is alveolarized to /s/ when it occurs at the end of a syllable and within a word before another consonant, leading to such pronunciations as the following.[1]

bathroom- /ˈbæs.ruːm/
birthday- /ˈbɝs.deɪ/

See also

References