This time next week I'll be lying on a bitch: /iː/ vs. /ɪ/

Lizz: What will you be doing this time next week Ri?

Ri: This time next week I'll be lying on a bitch.

Lizz: Lucky you!


It's the shit vs. sheet dichotomy, a classroom favourite bound to give you the giggles and perhaps a red face as you unravel the above conversation for a 45-year-old Laotian! I'm yet to find a pronunciation guide that deals with this sufficiently, so let's look at the /ɪ/ /iː/ distinction. We’re all told that the colon-like diacritic means that it’s a long sound but that doesn't really provide the whole picture. What we’re actually dealing with in phonetic terms is a distinction between tense and lax vowels; /iː/ is tense and /ɪ/ is lax. You can think of these terms exactly as they sound, so provide more muscle tension for /iː/ and relax slightly for /ɪ/.

Here's how to teach it:

1. Start with /iː/. This is a close-front vowel meaning that the body of the tongue should be pushing towards the arched part at the roof of your mouth and the gap between this and your tongue is minimal. 
2. Smile broadly, bear your teeth, stretch your lips out wide and don't forget to emphasize the muscle tension. I like to accompany my model with hand gestures - I like this because it saves me from slicing my head in half to reveal the cross section - a circumstance also appreciated by my boyfriend.
3. Now for /ɪ/. Starting from /iː/ relax your facial muscles, drop your smile slightly; your jaw will also come down a bit but this is minimal, you don't want to over-emphasize this.
4. Now get the students to practice. Make them do the hand gestures while they produce the voicing too. They should make the tense vowel slightly longer than the lax one but don't go crazy, nobody says 'This time next week I'll be lying on a beeeeeeeeach.'

/iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ iː ɪ/