“The” does have two pronunciations depending on if the word after it starts with a vovel sound or not. It’s “Thuh” for consonants and “Thee” for vowels.
To complicate it further some varieties merge /ʌ/ and /ə/, or /ɪ/ and /ə/. And I’m not even taking into account varieties using a different consonant, /t θ d f v/.
“The” does have two pronunciations depending on if the word after it starts with a vovel sound or not. It’s “Thuh” for consonants and “Thee” for vowels.
No it’s not… it’s purely emphasis/stress via vowel reduction in English?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_and_vowel_reduction_in_English
It’s both things, and subjected to wide variation:
Source for those pronunciations, Wiktionary.
To complicate it further some varieties merge /ʌ/ and /ə/, or /ɪ/ and /ə/. And I’m not even taking into account varieties using a different consonant, /t θ d f v/.