Emily wrote: ↑Fri May 31, 2024 12:16 am
popular speech often has [fɪft], [sɪkst] for
fifth, sixth
The forms of these ordinals with /t/ are historically more original (going back to Old English
fīfta, siexta; the First Folio employs the spellings <fift, sixt>, though the spelling evidence indicates that the present analogical forms with <-th> were already present in Late Middle English.
Emily wrote: ↑Fri May 31, 2024 12:16 am
intrusive [θ] in
height was already widespread in 1919
Again, this is a archaism with roots in OE (Anglian
hēhþu, hēþ), though the prevalence of
heighth in the modern dialects is probably due to analogy rather than failure of the ME change [xθ] > [xt]. However, widespread dialectal
drouth likely directly continues
drūgaþ more directly; in many dialects [ɣ] was lost before the syncope and devoicing that would allow it to participate in the aforementioned change could occur (in fact, I would consider the standard form with [t] somewhat puzzling, though its genuineness is vouched for by dialectal [drʊft]).