Vowels KIT

The most common realization of the KIT vowel in CamE is a tense and relatively short /i/ as in sit, bit, pity, myth, English [sit, bit, piti, mit, iŋgliʃ]. The KIT vowel thus clearly merges with the FLEECE vowel. When the KIT vowel in Wells’ paradigm results from vowel reduction, its realization in CamE is generally suggested by the underlying strong vowel, usually reflecting the spelling. Thus, words with post-tonic <-ace, -age, -ain, -ate> have /e/ (the restructured form of the FACE vowel), as in popul[e]ce, vill[e]ge, mount[e]n, liter[e]te; women and words in <-ed, -less, -ness> have /ε/: wom[ε]n, paint[ε]d, usel[ε]ss, happin[ε]s. Note the particular behavior of the vowels of horsES words and words with past tense -ed. There is no special provision for them in Wells’ (1982: 128) list. But Foulkes and Docherty (1999) set them apart as showing variations in the Sheffield accent different from the other KIT vowels. CamE also presents a different picture: while horsES words have /i/ (hors[i]s, clash[i]s, judg[i]s, -ed words have /ε/, as shown above.

The other realizations are suggested by the spelling (e.g. [sεkuit, sekuit] circuit, [bjuzi] busy), or analogy with some existing pattern. Thus coward[ai]ce and jaund[ai]ce are induced by the analogy with dice, d[ai]vorce, and b[ai]gamy by the analogy with the pronunciation of the prefixes di-, and bi-, respectively, in many words; imp[ai]ous by the analogy with pious; [ai]diosyncracy, -atic by the analogy with idea and its derivatives; h[ai]deous by the analogy with hide; h[ai]biscus, h[ai]pocritical by the analogy with other words with [hai-] (hibernate, hypertension, hypercritical); v[ai]neyard by the analogy with vine; Cather[ai]ne, femin[ai]ne, mascul[ai]ne, favor[ai]te, gran[ai]te, infin[ai]te, later[ai]te, (less commonly fam[ai]ne, genu[ai]ne, defin[ai]te) by the analogy with the many English words in –ine and –ite which have /ai/.

Note finally the dropping of the KIT vowel represented by final e in some words of foreign origin, like [apɔkɔp, fɔt, haipεbɔl, siŋkɔp] i.e. apocope, forte, hyperbole, syncope