Timeline for American English: Gliding of the long "ee" sound: [i] to [ɪi]
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| Dec 14, 2019 at 1:25 | comment | added | Jonathan | The southern drawl may just be an example of the phenomenon. I do suspect that the length of the pronunciation of the vowel is a key factor when this happens. Possibly related to difficulty sustaining the longer vowel physiologically, so abnormal tightening or loosening of throat muscles to sustain the longer vowel causes the glide to help complete the rest of the word. | |
| Dec 14, 2019 at 0:13 | comment | added | Yordan Grigorov | Thanks for the answer! Taking this from Wikipedia: "the short front vowels [æ], [ɛ], and [ɪ] become accompanied by an off-glide [ə] (also known as a schwa) such as in the words pat [pæ(ə)t], pet [pɛ(ə)t], and pit [pɪ(ə)t]". It doesn't seem to me that what I am talking about is the drawl per se.Although it could be possible that in states where people have (or had) such drawl, would normally also exhibit the kind of gliding I am describing. Also, I have heard people who don't have the "southern drawl" but occasionally do the upward glide of the long "e" | |
| Dec 13, 2019 at 23:22 | history | answered | Jonathan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |