Lowered HAPPY vowels in NAE

[Travis B.]

From listening around to people here, I notice that both my mother and my daughter have lowered HAPPY vowels oftentimes, pronouncing them as [ɪ~e]; I myself sometimes have [ɪ] for HAPPY, but I had dismissed this as just my speech being weird. The thing is that in dialects related relatively closely to GA HAPPY is supposed to be a tense , so I would assume this is a more recent innovation rather than being a conservatism shared with NAE dialects that at least historically had HAPPY vowels other than . So is anyone aware of there being HAPPY vowels realized as [ɪ~e] in NAE outside of dialects which historically had this?

[Sumelic]

From listening around to people here, I notice that both my mother and my daughter have lowered HAPPY vowels oftentimes, pronouncing them as [ɪ~e]; I myself sometimes have [ɪ] for HAPPY, but I had dismissed this as just my speech being weird. The thing is that in dialects related relatively closely to GA HAPPY is supposed to be a tense , so I would assume this is a more recent innovation rather than being a conservatism shared with NAE dialects that at least historically had HAPPY vowels other than . So is anyone aware of there being HAPPY vowels realized as [ɪ~e] in NAE outside of dialects which historically had this?

I'm only familiar with NAE speakers having lowered "HAPPY" in singing contexts.

[Tropylium]

I don't know what particular dialect it comes from, but I see eye-dialect spellings such as "partay" or "kitteh" often enough (these two seem to be known relatively widely but it's by no means limited to them); which presumably aim for a vowel closer to FACE than FLEECE.

Another question though is if this actually is meant to stand for [e]. I've definitely heard dialects where FACE is roughly [i̞] (i.e. higher than KIT despite no pin-pen merger) while FLEECE is [ɪj].

[mèþru]

I only hear this phenomenon in singing and as an intentional mispronunciation. I'm not aware if it being dialectal at all.

[Nachtuil]

Incominh beginner question: I am fairly certain NAE is north American English but what are HAPPY vowels?

[Vijay]

Incominh beginner question: I am fairly certain NAE is north American English but what are HAPPY vowels?

The vowels in the last syllable of "happy." EDIT: Sorry, I got it wrong myself at first.

I've definitely heard those vowels in partay, kitteh, etc., though. It's pretty common down here in Southern US.

[mèþru]

HAPPY vowels are a set of words used in describing the phonology of English dialects, specifically with the final sound of words like city, kitty, and happy. According to Wikipedia, they are most often:

• /i/ in Australian, Canadian (part of NAE), General American (part of NAE), New Zealand and Standard Singapore English
• /ɪj/ in Received Pronunciation
• vary between /i/ and /e/ in Scottish English
• /iˑ/ in South African English
• /iː/ in Welsh English

Keep in mind that there are considerable regional and class variations in pronunciation within most if not all of those dialects.

[Travis B.]

I am aware of lowered HAPPY vowels being found in Southern American English and AAVE, and in particular I was wondering if they show up anywhere else in NAE, as the rest of NAE is supposed to have .

[Nachtuil]

Ah thank you for explaining that.

[jal]

Ah thank you for explaining that.

HAPPY is part of an additional lexical set for English, as defined by phonologist John C. Wells.


JAL

[linguoboy]

I only hear this phenomenon in singing and as an intentional mispronunciation. I'm not aware if it being dialectal at all.

Same. Though some of those intentional mispronunciations seem to have originated as parodies of actual speech varieties. I think for example of "RALLAY I do!" which I got from Warner Brothers cartoons and seems to be mocking a particular actress of the era.

Historically, this vowel was laxed all the way to [ə] in parts of my home state, hence the well-known (chiefly rural) variant "Missourah". But nowadays its occurrence seems limited and lexical.

[Travis B.]

The thing about such eye-dialect spellings is I read them as being stressed differently from what they should be, due to perceiving final /eɪ/ as always stressed or at least secondarily stressed. (Whereas I don't perceive my mother and daughter's final [e] as even being the same phoneme as /eɪ/.)

[Vijay]

Blanche in The Golden Girls uses these lowered vowels very often.