Vowels

“Short” vowels

KIT

Canonical [ɪ] occurs throughout the British Isles, North America and the Caribbean, in Australia and the Pacifi c varieties, as well as, occasionally, in Africa and Asia (IndE, PakE). Tensed [i] is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and common in South-East Asia, and a possible variant in some BrE (mostly West Midlands), AmE and (eastern) AusE dialects, in parts of the Caribbean, South Africa, South Asia, and occasionally elsewhere. The so-called KIT-Split, with some words of this class being raised and others centralized, characterizes SAfE but ties in generally with centralization tendencies of this vowel found mostly in southern hemisphere Englishes. Centralization to schwa (or a position close to it) counts as a shibboleth of NZE, and it can also be heard in the very north of the British Isles (e.g. Shetland and Orkney, Scotland), in some forms of SAfE and StHE, and occasionally in BrE, AmE (notably urban, northern types) and CarE varieties, but not normally in WAfE and Asia. Lowering to [e/ε] is found in some urban varieties in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and comes up incipiently in California and Canada. Off-gliding, with this vowel, as a regular characteristic is exclusive to the Southern AmE accent, and a possibility in a few other dialects of AmE but not found elsewhere.