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'Th' sound to vanish from English language by 2066 because of multiculturalism, say linguists
Visitors expecting to hear the Queen’s English spoken on the streets of London in 50 years may need to "fink" again.
By 2066, linguists are predicting that the "th"
sound will vanish completely in the capital because
there are so many foreigners who struggle to
pronounce interdental consonants - the term for a
sound created by pushing the tongue against the
upper teeth. Already Estuary English – a hybrid of
Cockney and received pronunciation (RP) which is
prevalent in the South East – is being replaced by
Multicultural London English (MLE) which is heavily
influenced by Caribbean, West African and Asian
Communities. But within the next few decades
immigration will have fundamentally altered the
language, according to experts at the University of
York.
The "th" sound – also called the voiced
dental nonsibliant fricative – is likely to change to be
replaced an "f", "d", or "v" meaning "mother" will be
pronounced "muvver" and "thick" will be voiced as
"fick". However the ‘h’ that fell silent in Cockney
dialect is set to return allowing ‘ere’ to become ‘here’
once more.
Dr Dominic Watt, a sociolinguistics expert
from the University of York, said: “Given the status of
London as the linguistically most influential city in the
English-speaking world, we can expect to see
significant changes between now and the middle of
the century. The major changes in the way we speak
over the next 50 years will involve a simplification of
the sound structure of words, they’ll become shorter
probably. By looking at how English has changed
over the last 50 years we can identify patterns that
seem to repeat. British accents seem to be less
based on class these days. Languages also change
when they come into contact with one another.
English has borrowed thousands of words from other
languages: mainly French, Latin and Greek, but there
are ‘loan words’ from dozens of other languages in
the mix.”
The Sounds of The Future report was produced from a study involving analysis of recordings from the last 50 years
as well as social media language use.
Other changes likely to become widespread by 2066 include a habit known as "yod dropping" in which the "u" sound
is replaced with an "oo". It means that "duke" becomes "dook", "news" is pronounced "nooze" and "beauty" changes to "booty".
Consonant "smushing" is also predicted where two sounds collapse together completely so that "wed" and "red" will soon be
indistinguishable. Likewise the "l" at the end of words will be dropped so that the words "Paul", "paw" and "pool" all sound the
same. Similiarly, "text" will lose the final "t" to become "tex". And, the glottal stop pronunciation of "t" – a brief catch in the
throat when the tongue tip closed against the roof of the mouth – will be the default pronunciation.
Brendan Gunn, a voice coach who is currently working with Pierce Brosnan on his new US series said: “The younger
generation always wants to be different from the older generation and that process will continue throughout history.“Text speak
which is a form of shortening will become ordinary speak, so you may end up saying ‘tagLOL’ or ‘toteschill’ which means
hashtag laugh out loud or totally chilled. Even in the Royal family it is probable that Prince George will speak much differently
to the Queen. In London I think we will see the ‘th’ becoming an ‘f’ all the time.”
Technology will also change the way people speak, and the experts predict that as artificial intelligence emerges, the
computers could begin to invent new words. Dr Watt added: “It is conceivable that some of the words that will come into
English in the next 50 years will have been invented by computers because as computers become more intelligent it may be
they start creating words of their own and feeding the, [sic] back to us.”
Disponível em: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/09/28/. Acesso em: 8 maio 2025. (Adaptado).
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