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Pronunciation of the English "I"

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9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
PG18
Diglot
Newbie
Netherlands
goo.gl/E3J9u
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17 posts - 18 votes
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Portuguese

 
 Message 1 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
Hello,

Sometimes I pronounce the letter i completely wrong in English.

For example, the i in the following words sounds different:
king, time, sir

So I'm wondering if there is a rule for the pronuncation of this letter?

Thanks!

Edited by PG18 on 20 October 2013 at 11:15pm

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Glarus Girl
Groupie
United Kingdom
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50 posts - 108 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Swiss-German

 
 Message 2 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:22pm | IP Logged 
Maybe this website may help you it has videos on each of the letters and how to say them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pr
on/sounds/vowel_short_1.shtml


I don't know why this link keeps adding a space in between /pron/ but if you take it out
it will work! Sorry about that!

Edited by Glarus Girl on 20 October 2013 at 11:34pm

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Cabaire
Senior Member
Germany
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725 posts - 1352 votes 

 
 Message 3 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:31pm | IP Logged 
You have to learn for every word whether it is pronounced like king or time. There is no rule. If it is followed by an r, it is usually pronounced as in sir or as in fire.

Edited by Cabaire on 20 October 2013 at 11:39pm

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Darklight1216
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United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 4 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:31pm | IP Logged 
I pronounce the letter I differently in all three of those words.

I don't know what dialect/accent you're going for in English, but I encourage you find some audio of it and listen carefully and repeat it.
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Glarus Girl
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United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Swiss-German

 
 Message 5 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:41pm | IP Logged 
Cabaire wrote:
You have to learn for every word whether it is pronounced like
king or time. There is no rule. If it is followed by an r, it is usually
pronounced as in sir or as in fire. There is also a rarer pronunciation as
in hi.


There is a rule I was taught in infant school about 45 years ago! It was called the
'fairy e' - so words that had an 'e' on the end changed the sound from a short vowel to a
long one. There are exceptions but those are the ones you just have to remember.
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Cabaire
Senior Member
Germany
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725 posts - 1352 votes 

 
 Message 6 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:42pm | IP Logged 
This site has a maximal number of letters which you can use for a word. Therefore the system breaks up longer url-adresses.
Use instead this format:
short i
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Cabaire
Senior Member
Germany
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725 posts - 1352 votes 

 
 Message 7 of 9
20 October 2013 at 11:48pm | IP Logged 
Ah yes, Glarus girl, you are right, the silent e changes the short i to the diphthong.
Therefor hi was an exception because it is not pronounced like in spaghetti.

Edited by Cabaire on 20 October 2013 at 11:52pm

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ScottScheule
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French

 
 Message 8 of 9
21 October 2013 at 10:37pm | IP Logged 
Wikipedia's explanation is helpful here. Particularly look at the chart, which shows the effects of adding a silent e:

"English vowels are sometimes split into "long" and "short" vowels along lines different from the linguistic differentiation. Traditionally, the vowels /eɪ iː aɪ oʊ juː/ (as in bait beet bite boat beauty) are said to be the "long" counterparts of the vowels /æ ɛ ɪ ɒ ʌ/ (as in bat bet bit bot but) which are said to be "short". This terminology reflects their pronunciation before the Great Vowel Shift.

"Traditional English phonics teaching, at the preschool to first grade level, often used the term "long vowel" for any pronunciation that might result from the addition of a silent E (e.g., like) or other vowel letter as follows:

Letter "Short" "Long" Example
A a /æ/ /eɪ/ "mat" / "mate"
E e /ɛ/ /iː/ "pet" / "Pete"
I i /ɪ/ /aɪ/ "twin" / "twine"
O o /ɒ/ /oʊ/ "not" / "note"
U u /ʌ/ /juː/ "cub" / "cube"

"A mnemonic was that each vowel's long sound was its name."

As to the vowel in the word "sir," see the Wikipedia article on r-coloring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-colored_vowel

I'm writing as an American English speaker with a rhotic accent.


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