Front Vowels

High front

The two American English high front vowels, /i/ and /ɪ/, differ in height, length, and tense–lax dimension. The /i/ is longer, higher, and slightly diphthongal (hence symbols such as /i:/, /ij/, /iy/ in some books). In the production, the highest point of the tongue is a little lower and centralized, and is raised and fronted in articulation. This is most noticeable in the final position, as in see, and least noticeable before voiceless stops, as in feat, where the duration is shortest. For some speakers, [i] may be in free variation with [ɪ] in final position (e.g. city [sɪti/sɪtI], happy [hæpi/hæpI]). The use of final unstressed [ɪ] is most common to the south of a line drawn west from Atlantic City to northern Missouri, thence southwest to New Mexico.

The vowel /ɪ/ has several different phonetic manifestations; it may undergo ‘tensing’ and be realized as [i] before palato-alveolar fricatives (e.g. fish [fiʃ]). In AAVE and in Southern American English, /ɪ/ tends to be lowered to [ε] before nasals (e.g. thing [θεŋ]). Also observed in the same region is the tendency that converges the front vowels to [ɪ] (e.g. gater, kettle, daddy). Finally, we should note the free variation of [ɪ] with [ə] in unstressed syllables (e.g. believe [bəliv/bɪliv], kitchen [kɪtʃən/kɪtʃɪn]) and in suffixes -ed, -es, -est, as in tempted [tεmpt(ə/ɪ)d], bushes [bʊʃ (ə/ɪ)z], longest [lɔŋg(ə /ɪ)st].