I (letter): Difference between revisions
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Some British speakers emphasise their social superiority by pronouncing the '''î''' before '''r''' in words like '''wîre''' and '''fîre''' as if it were an '''à''', so that '''fîre''' sounds like '''fàr''': this is not a practice to recommend to foreign learners. Similarly, the pronunciation can be as extreme as a very long *fú in the American South. | Some British speakers emphasise their social superiority by pronouncing the '''î''' before '''r''' in words like '''wîre''' and '''fîre''' as if it were an '''à''', so that '''fîre''' sounds like '''fàr''': this is not a practice to recommend to foreign learners. Similarly, the pronunciation can be as extreme as a very long *fú in the American South. | ||
'''îe''' substitutes for final '''ŷ''' before suffixes -'''ed''' and -s: '''crîes, flîes, drîed, prîes, relîed'''. | '''îe''' substitutes for final '''ŷ''' before suffixes -'''ed''' and -'''s''': '''crîes, flîes, drîed, prîes, relîed'''. | ||
'''î''' occurs after '''ê''' (like in German) in '''seîsmic'''. | '''î''' occurs after '''ê''' (like in German) in '''seîsmic'''. | ||
Revision as of 13:51, 28 March 2009
I, i is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the ninth letter of most variants of the Latin alphabet, being placed after H and before J: for instance it is the case in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈaɪ], that is just like I, eye and aye (Î, eŷe and aŷe: the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes).
I is also the Roman numeral representing the number 1.
Use in English
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use in English | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabetical word list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retroalphabetical list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Common misspellings |
i represents various vowel sounds.
The short sound: fíll, íf, guíld, buíld, síx, twín, líd, kíd, Índia, tíff, gíft, gíve, líve, wíth, hís, bít, quít, Ítaly, knít, contrítion, nutrítion, optícian, sít, líd, quíp, ríp, quíz (cf. cýst).
íe substituting for final ỳ before the suffixes -ed and -s also has this sound: wòrríes, hóbbíes, flúrríes (all -íz), wòrríed, rállíed, cárríed (all -íd). Some younger BrE speakers are regularising these words to hóbbìês (-êez), wòrrìêd, etc.
The long sound is a diphthong consisting of à and ê: sîde, clîent, plîant, nîght, whîte, sîgn, mîne, trîumph, tîe, sîze, lîfe, nîce, vîe, pî number = pîe eat, hî hello = hîgh up.
Also, unstressed in final position: álibî, nûclêî (cf. spŷ, more commonly y in monosyllables) and before two consonants: pînt, lîthe, blîthe.
The first person singular subject pronoun Î is always capitalised.
Some British speakers emphasise their social superiority by pronouncing the î before r in words like wîre and fîre as if it were an à, so that fîre sounds like fàr: this is not a practice to recommend to foreign learners. Similarly, the pronunciation can be as extreme as a very long *fú in the American South.
îe substitutes for final ŷ before suffixes -ed and -s: crîes, flîes, drîed, prîes, relîed.
î occurs after ê (like in German) in seîsmic.
A third sound, long also, pronounced like ê, usually in words from Latin languages: machìne, elìte, Janìne, Christìna, polìce, Argentìna, skì, ballerìna, and unstressed: piâno (where it resembles the consonantal sound of 'y') Nàzì, Chrístìne or Christìne, mézzanìne, qùarantìne, and also Benìn. This ending can also be -îne: fîne, dîne, undermîne, and -íne when unstressed: exámíne, detërmíne, ërmíne.
"i before e except after c" remains a good rule (though Nêil, Shêila and Kêith are exceptions) and "except after w" also applies, with the exception of wìêld ). ei after c also has the ì sound: decêit, cêiling, recêive - and similarly after w: wêird, wêir - though not in wèigh, wèight heavy (= wây how, wâit time).
In German words, ie is ìê, as in Rìêsling, in contrast to eî as in Fáhrenheît.
The third sound of ì merges into a preceding s to make the 'zh' sound in -sion: vísion, derísion, lêsion, télevísion, revísion, and into preceding c and t to make the 'sh' sound in -cious and -tion: précious, spêcious, ignítion, nâtion, creâtion, posítion, abstráction, inténtion, méntion, and into x to make a 'ksh' sound in -xious: ánxious, nóxious (*ánkshəss, *nókshəss).
There can be a similar effect before the suffixes -cia, -sia and -tia: Galìcia (-ìssiə), Patrícia (-íshə), Alícia (more often -íssiə than -íshə), Âsia (*Ashə or Âzhə), amnêsia, Maláysia, Indonêsia (all for most speakers -zhə), Croâtia (*Crôwâshə), milítia, inërtia (both -shə) - and in AmE Tunisia (*Toô-nìzhə) but not in BrE (Chû-nízìə).
The ïr sound: gïrl, fïrst, bïrth birthday (= bërth ship), gïrth, fïr tree (= für cat) and stïr, is the same sound as in nërve, türn and wörm wriggle (cf. wårm hot, wŏrn wear).
Irregular i’s
| spelling | pronunciation | |
| again | *əgén or əgâin | |
| against | *əgénst or əgâinst | |
| croissant | *kwússón (French nasal -on) | |
| impasse | (regular) ímpasse, (irregular) *ámpasse (á or à) | |
| lingerie | BrE *lánzhəry, AmE *lànjerèy (è stressed) | |
| meringue | *meráng | |
| reveille | *reválly | |
| said | *séd | |
Final, double, suffixes, etc.
Final i is usually unstressed î: álibî, nùclêî, rábbî, Mâgî. Also: pî number (= pîe eat) - but not usually in monosyllables: skì, dôh-rè-mì (mì = mê mine) and not in nationalities: Sàudì (*Sòwdi), Pakistānì, nor in girls’ names: Térrì, Dórì, Nâomì, Jácquì (-kì) nor in Italian words: raviôlì, spaghéttì, conféttì, Rossìnì.
Double i is very rare and usually accidental: skìíng, Shìîte, râdìî, Hawàiì (*Ha-wài-ì: three syllables) and cóniìne.
-ice: In monosyllables: twîce, nîce, trîce, thrîce, vîce, lîce, prîce and in: sácrifîce, devîce, advîce but -íce usually in words of more than one syllable: pôultíce, crévíce, nótíce, láttíce, Véníce, hóspíce, órifíce, nóvíce. But: polìce.
-ive: Adjectives have an unstressed -íve: obtrûsíve, abûsíve, tålkatíve, demónstratíve, contémplatíve, progréssíve, regréssíve, inclûsíve and nouns: môtíve, explêtíve, dîgestíve (noun or adjective) while verbs have a stressed -îve: contrîve, arrîve, deprîve, revîve, but: líve (verb), lîve (adjective), alîve (adjective).
-ible, or -able: sénsible, respónsible, póssible, éligible, suscéptible, convërtible.
In more recent formations from nouns and verbs -able is usual: êatable (cf. édible), pálatable, unbreâkable, unrepêatable, classifîable, relîable, indispénsable, and also, to prevent -ii-, vîable. (ii does, however, occur in two words, skìing and Hawàìi (*Həwàì). See A for the suffixes -icle, -ical, -acle, and -age (*-íj).
The merely negative prefix dís- (distâsteful, disâbled, disinclîned) sounds exactly like another, dýs-, which means bad: dýsentery, dysléxia, dysfúnction.
i is redundant in friénd, pláit, sûit, frûit, jûice, slûice, crûise, brûise, recrûit, pursûit, nûisance, pàrliament, cárriage, márriage (both -ríj).