86. The Pronunciation of “e” and “i”

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There are some rules that can show when the letters “e” and “i” should each be pronounced like short “i” 

VARIABILITY OF VOWEL LETTER PRONUNCIATIONS

Correctly pronouncing vowel letters is a well-known problem in English. One reason is the existence in English of an unusually large number of vowel sounds (around 20), with only 5 official vowel letters in the alphabet to represent them (a, e , i, o, u), so that each letter has more than one way of being pronounced. Quite often, the right pronunciation can be discovered from clues like whether or not “e” is written at the end of a word (compare the “a” in hat and hate), but there are still numerous “illogical” spellings, such as bury pronounced like berry and bass pronounced like base (see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings).

The letters “e” and “i” contribute their fair share of illogical pronunciations, but even their more normal uses seem able to cause problems for speakers whose mother tongue is not English. In this post I wish to consider some less-appreciated normal pronunciations of these two letters, and also to touch on some that are not so normal.

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NORMAL PRONUNCIATIONS OF “e”

Some normal pronunciations of “e” are not very problematic. Of these, the best-known is probably the short one in words like end and lesson. Others are created by combining “e” with certain other letters, such as another “e”, as in meet, or “-a”, as in beam, or a consonant like “-r” or “-w”, as in her and few (see 155. Silent Consonants).

Slightly more problematic, but still not the focus here, is the /ə/ sound of the (see 202 Some Strategies for Learning English, #3).The troublesome normal “e” pronunciations that I wish to concentrate on are /ı/ and /i:/ in words like response and ether.

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1. Pronouncing “e” as /ı/

Some common places where, in many varieties of English, “e” is usually pronounced the same as the “i” in ship are (a) word-final -es and -ed that are syllables by themselves, e.g. reaches, judges, houses, sorted and eroded (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #2); (b) -est in superlative adjectives, e.g. quickest, hardest; and (c) the first syllable of words like response and security. I wish to say more about this last.

Two conditions must be met for pronouncing “e” as /ı/ in the first syllable of a multi-syllable word. Firstly, the syllable must be unstressed, i.e. not the most strongly pronounced syllable in the word (see 125. Stress and Emphasis). If the syllable is stressed, “e” is generally pronounced /e/ or /i:/. Secondly, the “e” must not accompany a pronunciation-changing letter like “a” or “r” (as in per-form, where the pronunciation is /ə/).

Here are some examples of words with an unstressed first “e” needing to be pronounced /ı/. Most are of Latin origin with first syllables derived from Latin prepositions (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling).

be-neath, be-side, de-ceive, de-fer, de-spise, de-spite, de-tect, de-velop, e-ject, e-lated, me-ander, pre-clude, pre-tend, re-ceive, re-main, re-spond, re-view, se-cure, se-duce, se-lect

Unfortunately, there are a few exceptions too, usually in longer words such as derivation, pre-pos-i-tion and de-mo-li-tion, all of which have an unstressed first “e” pronounced /e/.

When the unstressed letter “e” forms a syllable by itself at the start of a word, the /ı/ pronunciation is practically universal. Examples are e-galitarian, e-ject, e-laborate, e-lated, e-numerate, e-radicate, e-special, e-ternal, e-valuate, e-voke and e-volve. Examples of words where unstressed “e” starts a longer first syllable are en-act, en-hance, en-thusiastic, ex-amine and ex-ample. In words like this, the “e” can usually be pronounced either /e/ or /ı/.

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2. Pronouncing “e” as /i:/

The longer /i:/ sound is usually spelt “ee”, “ea” or “ie/ei” (e.g. teeth, treat, piece). Spellings with “e” alone tend to be in fairly well-defined places, especially the end of a stressed first syllable. Examples are de-cent, de-mon, de-tail (British Eng), de-tour (British Eng), de-viate, e-dict, e-mail, e-qual, e-ra, e-ther, e-vil, fe-male, fre-quent, ge-nius, pre-paid, pre-view, re-alise, re-bate, re-name, re-sit, sce-nic, ste-reo, the-sis.

In a few cases, a stressed first syllable needing to be pronounced /i:/ can also be unstressed and pronounced /ı/ to make a different word. Spellings which allow this are examples of “homographs” (see 6. Homonyms and Homographs). Examples are de-fect, re-call, re-ject, re-mit and re-search.

Unfortunately, there are also many words where “e” at the end of a stressed first syllable is pronounced /e/ instead of /i:/, such as be-vy, de-legate, de-licate, de-luge, de-monstrate, de-nier, de-pot, de-vil, e-very, he-resy, le-vy, ne-cessary, rhe-toric and sphe-rical. Some words like this can again be given a different meaning by moving the stress and changing the first vowel sound to /ı/ as a result. Examples are de-sert (= “place with few plants” changing to “abandon”), pre-sent, re-cord and re-fuse.

A notable kind of unstressed first syllable with /i:/ is de- meaning “remove” (see 146. Some Important Prefix Types). Examples are debrief, decommission, decompose, defuse (see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #4), depopulate deregulate and devalue. Note also theoretical. Perhaps the reason why the- has /i:/ despite being unstressed is that it is derived from a noun (theory) where it is stressed; perhaps its origin as a Greek word with a long “e” is a factor.

One situation where “e” in a later stressed syllable is likely to be pronounced /i:/ is before the letter “r”. Examples are arterial, criterion. experience, inferior, interference, managerial, mysterious and superior. Note also strategic.

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NORMAL PRONUNCIATIONS OF “i”

The letter “i” is usually pronounced either /ı/ as in pill or /aı/ as in pile. Only in a few words, often borrowed from other languages, is it pronounced /i:/ (e.g. bidet, chic, ski). There are a number of ways of deciding whether “i” should be pronounced /ı/ or /aı/, but they are not all completely reliable. Readers may find the following useful.

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3. When to pronounce “i” as /ı/

A. When “i” is the last pronounced vowel of a word, and has only consonant letters after it. Examples are mix, drip, milk, thick, shrink, begin, vermin, insulin.

B. When “i” is followed by a double consonant (except “-rr”) or “-ck”, e.g. filling (not the same as filing!), pinned (cp pined), picks (not the same as peeks!), dinner, mission, beginning, hilly. One exception to this rule is frisson, a recent borrowing from French and hence still pronounced in the French way with /i:/ (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary); another is dis-sect, pronounced /daı-/.

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4. When to say /aı/

A. When “i” precedes “e” at the end of a one-syllable word, with or without a final “-s”: pie, lie, die, tie, flies, fries, plies, shies, skies, spies, tries.

B. When “i” precedes a single consonant and “e” at the end of a word, e.g. fine, mile, spice, expire, incline, invite, facile, finite (but not definite or infinite), expedite, erudite, supervise, dynamite. Important exceptions are opposite, requisite, urine, doctrine, imagine, intestine, clandestine and determine, which all have /ı/ (though derivatives ending in -nal, such as doctrinal, have /aı/).

C. When “i” is followed by “gh”: nigh, high, sigh, thigh, alight, blight, bright, fight, flight, fright, light, might, night, plight, right, sight, slight, tight.

D. When “i” is followed by a consonant and “y” at the end of a two-syllable word, e.g. briny, stripy, tiny, spiny, spiky, slimy, icy, ivy, wily (but not lily).

E. When “i” is in one of the following prefixes of Latin or Greek origin: tri-, bi-, micro-, bio- and dia- (for more about Latin and Greek, see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling and 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary. See also 146. Some Important Prefix Types). Example words are triangle, triumph, tripartite, tricycle, triennial, trial, tribunal (but not tribune or tribute); biped, bicycle, biennial, bisexual, binomial; microscope, microbe, microeconomic; biopic, biography, biology; diarrhoea, diagonal, dialogue, dial, diaspora, diaphragm, diabetes, diagnostic, diagram, diary and diet. Note that multi- ends with /aı/ in American English and /ı/ in British English.

F. When “i” is the entire first syllable of a multi-syllable word: i-bex, i-con, i-cy, i-dea, i-dentify, i-dentity, i-dle, i-dol, i-on, i-rate, i-ron, i-sle, i-vory, i-vy (but not i-magine and i-rascible).

G. When “i” ends a stressed first syllable and has a consonant before it: bi-son, bi-ble, bri-dal, bri-dle, cli-mate, di-et, fi-nance, fi-bre, fi-ery, fi-nite, gi-ant, hi-fi, li-able, mi-graine, mi-nor, mi-nus, pri-mary, qui-et, si-lo, sti-fle, sti-pend, stri-ker, ti-ny, ti-tle, vi-a, vi-able, vi-tal (but not li-quid, li-quor, li-quorice, li-gature, li-tigate, vi-gour, bi-shop, bi-det).

H. When “i” precedes -nd or -ld at the end of a short word: kind, bind, (be)hind, find, (re)mind, blind, rind, mild, child, wild, wind (= make many turns) (but not wind = “blowing air” and rescind).

I. When “di” is the first of two syllables: di-et, di-gest, di-gress, di-late, di-rect, di-verge, di-verse, di-vert, di-vulge (but not di-git, di-vide, di-vine).

J. When “i” is in a word of similar spelling and meaning to one that follows another /aı/ rule, e.g. financial, climatic, bridal, tidal, arrival, revival, survivor (but not criminal, definition, inclination, unity, wilderness, wisdom – see 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words).

Finally, it is worth noting the following /ai/ words, which seem to follow no rule, or to break a rule: pint (not the same as mint, hint, lint, etc.), pi (not like ski), criterion, environment, migrate, minute (=“very small”), dissect, and climb (cp. limb). Readers who know of any others are welcome to mention them via the comment facility below.