Talk:1697: Intervocalic Fortition

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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The idea, stated in the alt-text, that "meh" was created by writers of "The Simpsons", is incorrect. "The Simpsons", however, was responsible for widely popularizing it. See [1] and [2] Dubaaron (talk) 04:31, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

"The" ends in a lax vowel, and it's the most ubiquitous word in the language, so that rule is wrong. 108.162.221.10 04:45, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

I've always seen "lax vowel" referring to full (unreduced) vowels. When unstressed, the vowel in "the" is reduced (/ðə/), and when stressed it's tense (/ði:/). 188.114.109.66 05:08, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
Furthermore, the lax vowel is only used if 'the' is followed by another syllable, and so the utterance will not be lax-vowel-final.

Questions. Is this happening in (American) English? is "adverb" becoming /adferb/. Any other examples?