On 2010-01-30, at 2:33 AM, Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar wrote:

> I have come to notice a common preference in England for the spelling
> 'loath' over 'loth' (meaning 'disinclined').

The preference is international and historical. In fact, in the Corpus of Current American English, 'loath' is about 50 times more common than 'loth' where in the British National Corpus, it's only about five times more common.

> Are 'loth' and 'loath' (as the adjective
> meaning 'disinclined') pronounced unvoiced in America?

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary gives both voice and unvoiced with voiceless listed first.

Best,
Brett

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Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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