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=                                The                                 =
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                             Introduction                             
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'The' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or
things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise
presumed familiar to listeners, readers or speakers. It is the
definite article in English. 'The' is the most commonly used word in
the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to
account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is
derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle
English and now has a single form used with pronouns of either gender.
The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns and with a
noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other
languages which have different forms of the definite article for
different genders or numbers.


                            Pronunciation                             
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In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as  (with the voiced dental
fricative  followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound,
and as  (homophonous with 'thee') when followed by a vowel sound or
used as an emphatic form. In modern American English, however, there
is an increasing tendency to limit the usage of the latter
pronunciation to emphatic purposes and use the former even before a
vowel. The same change is happening in New Zealand English.

In some Northern England dialects of English, 'the' is pronounced
(with a dental t) or as a glottal stop, usually written in eye dialect
as ; in some dialects it reduces to nothing. This is known as definite
article reduction.

In dialects that do not have the voiced dental fricative , 'the' is
pronounced with the voiced dental plosive, as in  or ).


                              Etymology                               
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'The' and 'that' are common developments from the same Old English
system. Old English had a definite article 'se' (in the masculine
gender), 'sēo' (feminine), and 'þæt' (neuter). In Middle English,
these had all merged into 'þe', the ancestor of the Modern English
word 'the'.


                                Usage                                 
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The principles of the use of the definite article in English are
described under "Use of articles".  The word 'the' as in phrases like
"the more the better", has a distinct origin and etymology and by
chance has evolved to be identical to the definite article. (See the
Wiktionary entry 'the'.)


 Geographical names 
====================
An area in which the use or non-use of 'the' is sometimes problematic
is with geographic names. Names of rivers, seas, mountain ranges,
deserts, island groups (archipelagoes) and the like are generally used
with the definite article ('the Rhine', 'the North Sea', 'the Alps',
'the Sahara', 'the Hebrides'). Names of continents, individual
islands, countries, regions, administrative units, cities and towns
mostly do not take the article ('Europe', 'Jura', 'Austria' (but 'the
Republic of Austria'), 'Scandinavia', 'Yorkshire' (but 'the County of
York'), 'Madrid'). However, there are certain exceptions:


	
Countries and territories the names of which derive from common


nouns such as "kingdom" or "republic" take the article: 'the United
States', 'the United Kingdom', 'the Soviet Union', 'the United Arab
Emirates', and most country full names: 'the Czech Republic' (but
'Czechia'), 'the Russian Federation' (but 'Russia'), 'the Principality
of Monaco' (but 'Monaco'), 'the State of Israel' (but 'Israel'), 'the
Commonwealth of Australia' (but 'Australia').,,

	
Countries and territories the names of which derive from "island" or


"land", however, only take the definite article if they represent a
plural noun: 'the Netherlands', 'the Falkland Islands', 'the Faroe
Islands', and 'the Cayman Islands', even 'the Philippines' or 'the
Comoros' do, though the plural noun "islands" is omitted there. The
(singular) 'Greenland' on the other hand does not take the definite
article, and neither does 'Christmas Island' or 'Norfolk Island'.
Exceptions include "the North Island" (of New Zealand).

	
Certain countries and regions the names of which derive from


mountain ranges, rivers, deserts, etc., are sometimes used with an
article even though in the singular ('the Lebanon', 'the Sudan', 'the
Yukon'), but this usage is declining, although the Gambia remains the
recommended name of that country. Since the independence of Ukraine
(formerly sometimes called 'the Ukraine'), most style guides have
advised dropping the article (in some other languages there is a
similar issue involving prepositions). Use of 'the Argentine' for
Argentina is considered old-fashioned.

	
Some names include an article, such as the Bronx or The Hague.

	
Names beginning with a common noun followed by 'of' may take the


article, as in 'the Isle of Wight' or 'the Isle of Portland' (compare
'Christmas Island'). The same applies to names of institutions:
'Cambridge University', but 'the University of Cambridge'.


 Abbreviations for "the" and "that" 
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Since "the" is one of the most frequently used words in English, at
various times short abbreviations for it have been found:


	
Barred thorn: the earliest abbreviation, it is used in manuscripts in


the Old English language. It is the letter þ with a bold horizontal
stroke through the ascender, and it represents the word 'þæt', meaning
"the" or "that" (neuter nom. / acc.).

	
þͤ and þͭ (þ with a superscript 'e' or 't') appear in Middle English


manuscripts for "þe" and "þat" respectively.

	
yͤ and yͭ are developed from 'þͤ' and 'þͭ' and appear in Early Modern


manuscripts and in print (see 'Ye' form below).

Occasional proposals have been made by individuals for an
abbreviation.  In 1916, Legros & Grant included in their classic
printers' handbook 'Typographical Printing-Surfaces', a proposal for a
letter similar to Ħ to represent "Th", thus abbreviating "the" to ħe.

In Middle English, 'the' (þe) was frequently abbreviated as a 'þ' with
a small 'e' above it, similar to the abbreviation for 'that', which
was a 'þ' with a small 't' above it. During the latter Middle English
and Early Modern English periods, the letter thorn (þ) in its common
script, or cursive form, came to resemble a 'y' shape. As a result,
the use of a 'y' with an 'e' above it (10px) as an abbreviation became
common. This can still be seen in reprints of the 1611 edition of the
King James Version of the Bible in places such as Romans 15:29, or in
the Mayflower Compact. Historically, the article was never pronounced
with a 'y' sound, even when so written.


 License 
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License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The


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