Lax vowels KIT

This vowel is typically realized in all varieties of NfldE as standard lax [ɪ]. More traditional or conservative vernacular speakers from all areas of the province display a variable tendency towards tensing of the KIT vowel, though this is most noticeable on the Irish-settled Avalon peninsula. In areas of the province settled by the SW English, [ɪ] tensing appears to be phonologically conditioned among conservative rural speakers, occurring particularly before an alveopalatal fricative (e.g. fish) and, less frequently, an alveolar nasal, e.g. in, wind. Even among younger urban speakers, [ɪ] tensing frequently occurs in two morphemes: the -ing of words like walking or going, often pronounced [in]; and the possessive his, which often sounds identical to he’s, and which may represent a reanalysis by analogy with the possessive marker ‘s.

In SW English-settled areas of the province, a more prevalent tendency among conservative speakers is the variable lowering of the KIT vowel to the range of [ε]. This tendency is phonologically conditioned, occurring in other than a following oral stop environment (most frequently before /l/, as in children, as well as anterior fricatives, e.g. different, with, and occasionally before /n/, as in since). Because for such speakers the DRESS vowel is variably raised to the [ɪ] range, phonetic realizations of the KIT and DRESS sets may overlap to a considerable degree – though such tendencies as [ɪ] tensing do not generally affect items of the standard English DRESS set.