A Sociophonetic Analysis of Interdental Fricatives Among University Students

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and substitution patterns of the English interdental fricative sounds among university students. This study addresses the need to examine students’ socioeconomic status (SES), their substitution patterns for the target sounds, and the possible relationship between SES and substitution frequency. A total of 132 Bachelor of Arts in English Language completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and participated in a pronunciation task. Results indicated that 53.8% of the participants belonged to the lower SES group, 33.3% to the middle SES group, and 12.9% to the upper SES group. Across all socioeconomic groups, participants commonly substituted the voiced th /ð/ sound with the voiced alveolar stop /d/, while other substitutions were less frequent. For the voiceless th /θ/ sound, the most frequent substitution was the voiceless alveolar stop /t/, with /tʃ/ and /s/ appearing only occasionally. Statistical analyses revealed a weak positive but non-significant correlation between socioeconomic status and substitution patterns, indicating that SES did not influence the production of the interdental fricatives. This suggests that variation in interdental fricatives is primarily driven by first-language phonology. Consequently, language educators should pivot toward explicit, intelligibility-based pronunciation instruction rather than deficiency-based pedagogical models.