Vowel /eɪ/ phoneme (long vowel)

The vowel /eɪ/ is a long vowel as in face. It is a diphthong, or double vowel, consisting of the mid-front vowel /e/ plus the short short vowel /ɪ/. Phonologists usually use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols /eɪ/ for this vowel. This is generally contrasted with the short vowel /ɛ/ as in dress in teaching. The pure vowel /e/ by itself is not used in most varieties of English. In this article, slash marks like /ɪ/ indicate a phoneme, while angled brackets like <ɪ> indicate a letter or spelling, and square brackets like [ɪ] indicate a precise phonetic transcription, e.g. indicating a phonetic variant of a sound.

1 Linguistic description

The long vowel /ei/ is not just a longer version of /ɛ/, but is qualitatively different – it is glided or diphthongized, i.e., it is actually a double vowel, or two vowel sounds blended together into one phoneme.

• This vowel is a diphthong, or double vowel consisting of two simple vowels blended together, but /eɪ/ functions as a single long vowel and a single phoneme or unique sound of English. Thus, it is a long vowel because it is a diphthong.
• It consists of the vowels /e/ plus /ɪ/, which are pronounced in the front of the mouth. The /e/ vowel is a mid-front vowel, being pronounced with the tongue blade in the middle of the front mouth space, between the /i/ sound as in fleece and the /ɛ/ as in dress. The vowel short vowel /ɪ/ is pronounced with the tongue slightly higher, between /e/ and /i/.
• The /e/ component is phonetically the core of the diphthong, while the /ɪ/ is an off-glide. The off-glide component in many standard varieties of English may actually be slightly higher than the /ɪ/ by itself.
• The /eɪ/ sound is unrounded, i.e., the lips are not rounded, but since a rounded version of this vowel would be very rare in other languages, this is not a concern for language teachers or language learners.
• The /eɪ/ sound can vary in different dialects of English, e.g., within and between North American, British, Australian, and other varieties. For example, in Australian, the first component of the vowel is slightly lowered, so that the vowel is more like /æɪ/.
• The symbol /ɪ/ in /eɪ/ is a small capital, lower case /I/. Because of dialectal variation and differences in how some linguists transcribe this sound, the vowel /eɪ/ may also be written as /ei/, /ey/, /ɛɪ/, /ɛi/ or /ɛy/. It should not be written as /e/ or /e:/, as this can give learners the incorrect idea that it is a monophthong like the /e/ or /ɛ/ in their first languages.

1.1 Cross-linguistic comparison

In most languages, the mid-front vowel is a pure /e/, as in most European languages. A few languages have the /eɪ/ diphthong as a regular phoneme, such as Quebec French, Dutch, and Mandarin Chinese (e.g., the syllable mei). It also occurs in Korean, but mainly in English loanwords such as 베이컨 beikŭn "bacon." The monophthong or simple vowel /e/ by itself does not occur in English, except in certain dialects; for example, the /eɪ/ sound in Scottish dialects may be pronounced as /e/, as in the stereotypical Scottish pronunciation of "I'm going to take the train."

1.2 Teaching /eɪ/ production

Students need to learn that this is not just a long version of the /ɛ/ vowel as in dress, nor is it the pure /e/ vowel as in their first language (L1). They can be taught to first say /e/ and then say /i/ (as in we), and then they can blend them into a single sound (this is especially fine, since the /ɪ/ in the /eɪ/ is often slightly higher than /ɪ/ as a simple vowel as in fish). For many learners, teaching will often involve training students to hear and produce the contrast between /eɪ/ as in bait and /ɛ/ as in bet.

Confusingly, dictionaries in Korea use /e/ for the short vowel and /e:/ for the long vowel /eɪ/. This is confusing and incorrect, and lead Koreans to misunderstand their pronunciation. The short vowel should be written /ɛ/, and the long vowel should be written as /eɪ/ or something similar such as /ei/, /ey/, /ɛɪ/, or /eɪ/.

2 Practice materials and activities

2.1 Minimal pairs

Here are a few minimal pairs for practice; see below for more.

attained         staler sailor nettle papered contained claimant spatially savor racking

attend         stellar cellar natal peppered contend Clement specially sever wrecking

2.2 Practice sentences

1. Never trust a layman to buy you a computer, or you may end up with a lemon.
2. Do not wait there in wet clothes, and don’t sell sails when it’s raining.
3. That’s a tell-tale sign that you’re really wasting your time.
4. A horse named Ned neighed in the neighboring lane next to the main red rail.
5. Fred felt frayed, as he fretted his daily trips to Delhi. He was especially prone to spatial disorientation while flying.
6. Lately, he’s had to leave his dogs at home – a den full of Great Danes.
7. Clement is a claimant in a court case against James, because James takes his gems from his safe.
8. Jane hasn’t attained the required documents to attend the conference in Maine. So Eddie aided her in the painful process of penning a new paper for a later conference.

(Author: Kent Lee)

2.3 Tongue twister

I know a boy named Tate
Who dined with his girl at 8:08.
I’m unable to state
What Tate ate at 8:08.
Or what Tate’s tête à tête ate at 8:08.
   

2.4 Practice poem

The following poem is one that I wrote to practice this sound. This deals with exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, and the possibility of life on such planets.

'The explanets poem'

If you're looking for alien planets in space,
Finding a livable one is quite a chase.
You want a place that life can sustain,
You want a place that can would be humane.
In the air, not too much propane or methane,
Not an atmosphere too painfully insane,
Not where poison falls as rain,
Where from breathing you would have to abstain.
Naturally, in the star's habitable zone is great;
Too near and it'll bake, which is not a good fate;
Too far and the planet's just a lifeless deadweight.
On the surface, you want some good terrain,
And plate tectonics would be a big gain –
Unlike Venus, where the ancient plains
Every half billion years awake from their refrain,
To erupt and melt and destroy that surface once mundane.
Better to have tectonics and a few earthquakes;
Otherwise evolving life there would just bring heartaches.
Besides carbon, a surface with water and silicates and perchlorates
Make things more fun, and you'll need some way to aerate.
So many things necessary for life to awaken,
One little mishap and all hope is shaken.
When can we go to such a place, I just can't wait.
And what would the aliens there think of an earthling primate?

  

(Author: Kent Lee)

3 More minimal pairs

The following can be used for practice, contrasting /eɪ/ word-initially and medially (middle of word) with /ɛ/. No word-final comparisons are included, because short lax vowels like /ɛ/ generally do not occur word-finally in English. There is perhaps one word with final /ɛ/: the discourse marker meh, which contrasts with may.

initial	medial
ate eight ebb Abe Ed aid eddied aided       edge age etch H L ail M aim S ace X aches	abet abate attend attained beck bake beckon bacon bed bayed bell/belle bail belly bailey Ben bane Bess base best based best baste bet bait bled blade bread braid Bren brain breast braced cell sail / sale cellar sailor cent saint chess chase chest chased / chaste       Clement claimant contend contained Delhi daily dell dale den Dane Fed fade fell fail femme fame fen fain fend feigned fetid fated fettle fatal fez phase fleck flake fled flayed Fred frayed fret freight gel jail gelled jailed gems James	gen Jane get gait / gate heaven haven heck hake held hailed hell hail impel impale Jenny Janie ken cane leaden laden leading lading lemming laming lemon layman Len lain lens lanes less lace lest laced let late letter later Med made men main Met mate Metz mates misled mislaid       Ned neighed Nell nail nettle natal Neville naval pen pain pepper paper pest paced pest paste pet pate phlegm flame pled played Pres praise quell quail read raid red raid redder raider rend rained rest raced ret rate	rev rave Rex rakes scent saint sec sake sedge sage sell sail sell sale send seined sent saint set sate sever savor shed shade shell shale sled slayed / sleighed       special spatial sped spade spread sprayed stead staid stellar staler tech take tell tail teller tailor tent taint test taste testy tasty tread trade trend trained tress trace vend veined wed wade wedge wage weld wailed well wail wells Wales wen Wayne wend waned wens wains west waist wet wait wetter waiter wreck rake wren rain

4 Notes

4.1 See also

Portal:Phonology

  English vowels

  Trisyllabic deletion

  Trisyllabic laxing

  Vowel /eɪ/ phoneme (long vowel)

  Vowel /ou/ phoneme (long vowel)

  Vowel /æ/ phoneme

  Vowel /ʊ/ phoneme (short vowel)

  Vowel /ʌ, ə, ɜ/ phonemes (short central vowels)

  Vowel /ɪ/ phoneme (short vowel)