EE vs. IH Long and Short Vowels American English
In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to talk a little more about the
vowels EE and IH.
Here along the Hudson River for Fleet Week,
they’re bringing out some old-time replica
ships.
Like the ones taken in this photo by my friend
Jovon.
And this made me think about the vowels EE
and IH. ‘Ships’ has the IH as in SIT vowel.
And ‘fleet’ ‘week’ both have the EE as in
SHE vowels. Now, I just did a video on the
IH vowel versus the EE vowel, a comparison.
And I didn’t talk about length at all. That’s
because I don’t think length really comes into
play when we’re talking about a vowel on its
own. But since a lot of people teach length
when they teach these two vowels, I thought
I should talk about it. A lot of people will
say that ‘ee’ is a long vowel, and ‘ih’ is
a short vowel. But I feel like vowels themselves
don’t have a length. To me the length of a
syllable depends on: is it a stressed syllable,
or is it unstressed? So, if the IH vowel is
in the stressed syllable of a content word,
then it will be long, even though some people
would call it a ‘short’ vowel.
Another thing that can effect vowel length
is the ending consonant. If everything else
is the same, and the ending consonant is voiced,
then that vowel will be a little bit longer
than if the ending consonant is unvoiced.
So, for example, the word ‘cap’ will be a
little bit shorter than the word ‘cab’. Cap,
cab.
So, in looking at the ‘ee’ vowel and the ‘ih’
vowel: in the word ‘beat’ – an unvoiced consonant
there at the end – that ‘ee’ vowel is short.
Beat. But in the word ‘bid’ – the ending
consonant there is voiced, so ‘ih’ will be
a little bit longer.
So don’t think about the length of the vowel
being tied to the vowel itself. It’s tied
to the syllable, and the sentence position,
and maybe the ending consonant.
This ship was interesting because instead
of raising their sails, they had people standing
where the sails would have been.
Notice how ‘been’, spelled with two E’s, is
actually pronounced with the IH as in SIT
vowel. Listen again. …where the sails would
have been. [3x]
They’re holding on to something.
Hey Jovon.
Yeah?
Nice socks.
Thanks.
Really like them.
Thanks, that means a lot.
A couple interesting things happening with
pronunciation here. When I said, “nice socks,”
notice how I didn’t make two separate S sounds,
nice–socks. Just one, connecting the two
words: nice socks. I also said, “really like
them,” reducing the word ‘them’ to ‘um’. And
connecting that word to the word before. Like
‘em, like ‘em. Listen again.
Hey Jovon.
Yeah?
Nice socks.
Thanks.
Really like them.
Thanks, that means a lot.
Hey guys, what do you think of these ships?
I think these ships are great. Where I’m
from, in Arizona, there’s no water. We don’t
even have any lakes. And so …
So this is a totally new experience for
you.
It’s a totally new experience.
They’re really beautiful. Um, this is the
200th anniversary of the War of 1812, so they’re
celebrating this and some of them are, I think
are replicas from that time.
Cool.
Yeah. I didn’t know that. She knows everything.
Only a little bit. Thanks Wikipedia.
That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.
I’m excited to announce that I’m running another
online course, so do check out my website
for details. You’ll find on there all sorts
of information about the course, who should
take the course, and requirements. I really
hope you’ll check it out and consider signing
up. I’ve had a blast with my first online
course, and I’m looking forward to getting
to know you.
Don’t stop there. Have fun with my real-life
English videos. Or get more comfortable with
the IPA in this play list. Learn about the
online courses I offer, or check out my latest
video.