Short vowels

KIT

Widely throughout the British Isles, the realization of this vowel is [ɪ]. This feature occurs in all varieties and is quite usual in all but Orkney and Shetland, where lowering and centralizing, heard variably also in Northern England and the Channel Islands, is to be expected. Lowering of the vowel to [e] is a feature of Urban Northern Irish, and this or an even lower and more retracted vowel is a feature of Urban Scots. A tense [i] is characteristic of the West Midlands, and may be heard in East Anglia and British Creole too.