# Pronunciation of Height



## SeaBreeze (Mar 15, 2015)

I pronounce height the way it describes in the dictionary, hit...with a long sounding i.  I hear more and more people pronouncing it like hei*th*​.  They put a th sound at the end.  Have you ever heard people doing this, how do you pronounce height?  I've even heard similar pronunciation with the word weight.


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## lovemylittleboy (Mar 15, 2015)

You say it correctly SeaBreeze. I have heard anyone put like the  at the end The dictionary is always right


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## Josiah (Mar 15, 2015)

I haven't heard either of the alternative pronunciations you mention.


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## applecruncher (Mar 15, 2015)

Height rhymes with kite.
Weight rhymes with gate.


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## lovemylittleboy (Mar 15, 2015)

It is pronounced high-T (height.) How do you pronounce it Josiah


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## lovemylittleboy (Mar 15, 2015)

Well applecruncher that is a very good description!


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## SeaBreeze (Mar 15, 2015)

Josiah said:


> I haven't heard either of the alternative pronunciations you mention.



Here's some information that explains that pronunciation.  http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hei1.htm

*Heighth*

Q _From Les Dixon_: When I moved to Canada from the UK 25 years ago I noticed that some people, not many, used the word _heighth_ rather than height. I don’t think I’d ever heard this in England and at first I thought it was just a slip of the tongue, but I now hear it more often, even by a television reporter on one occasion. The words _width_ and _length_ are correct, what about the word_heighth_? Was it ever used in the past?

A It was. In fact, until the end of the seventeenth century, _highth_ or _heighth_were its standard spellings. The word was formed in Old English from _high_, plus _-th_, the exact analogue of _width_, _breadth_, and _length_. If word history were the only consideration, we all ought still to be using _highth_.

The reason why we don’t comes down to dialect pronunciation in parts of Northern England in Middle English times, in which the _-th_ ending was pronounced as /t/. In Southern England, it was said instead like the initial _th_in _thumb_. During the seventeenth century, the Northern form triumphed over the Southern, and the spelling followed suit. (_Width_ and _length_ didn’t follow because final _dt_ is not a common consonant cluster in English and is hard to say.)

However, _heighth_ continued to be widely heard. Charles Dickens used it frequently — as here in _Great Expectations_: “Pip, I wish you ever well and ever prospering to a greater and a greater heighth”. It still exists in several English dialects down to the present day.

 It has also survived in parts of North America, which have tended to cling to older pronunciations.
Because of its odd history, we can hardly argue that _highth_ is truly an error, more an archaism. Though nearly everyone now spells it _height_, it’s not that uncommon to hear it said as /haɪtθ/ among educated people in North America, and some authorities there consider it to be a permissible variant.

So strong is the ending that it is not unknown to hear people use _coolth_, a word which some dictionaries mark as archaic, but which has had a resurgence in favour in recent decades.


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## Josiah (Mar 15, 2015)

After reading this SB it occurs to me that not only have I heard the th ending, I've used it myself. Perhaps the th ending pronunciation may be a bit archaic.


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## NancyNGA (Mar 16, 2015)

Wow, you learn something every day here!  I've used heighth before.   Not often, but sometimes.:whoops:


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## AprilT (Mar 16, 2015)

Th when I say things like to the ninth, but not height. 

If you want to hear English version pronunciations,Just type in the word in the box,  here ya go:  

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/height?s=t

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=height+&submit=Submit


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## hollydolly (Mar 16, 2015)

ooooh it drives me up the wall when people pronounce it heighth...there is clearly *no TH* on the end of the word...and yes it is heard here in England..and I'm sure that it doesn't apply to any of you here, but it has to be said that the only people who I ever hear pronouncing it with a TH here in the UK are those who are educationally sub normal..


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## Falcon (Mar 16, 2015)

I've always said "hite".


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## lovemylittleboy (Mar 16, 2015)

This is so funny.....lol lol lol


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## SifuPhil (Mar 16, 2015)

There's also "breadth" ...


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## oakapple (Mar 17, 2015)

Falcon said:


> I've always said "hite".


me too.


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## Josiah (Mar 17, 2015)

Holly, add me to your assemblage of sub normals.


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