New York Dialect: Long I

Video Transcript

"Alright, we're going to move on to the long "I". It is written as an "I" and it sounds like "I", as in the word "Friday". Now what we're going to change this vowel to is something similar to an "OEY", but not as extreme as an "OEY", and that would be a typical mistake that someone would make, is they would turn "Friday" into "Fr-OEY-day", alright, that's to harsh. But what happens is we're going to turn it into a dipthong. And a dipthong is where we're going to hear two sounds, "Fri-day", we're going to hear almost an "OEY", but more of an "AI" combination; "Fr-OEY-day", "Fr-OEY-day", so you hear an "AI", "AI", rather than just a straight "I", or an "OEY", it's "Fr-OEY-day" night, okay. Now this one has a rule, this change, meaning change long "I" into "OEY", and you can really feel it if you drop your jaw, "OEY", "Fr-OEY", drop your jaw, you change it, prior to voiced consonants, so "D", as in "F-R-I-D-A-Y", "D" is a voiced consonant, so we're going to make the change, "Fr-OEY-day, alright. If it was a voiceless consonant, the ones that make air, rather than sound, you don't change it. Voiced, change it to where we hear "Fr-OEY-day", drop the jaw. Voiceless, it's just a long "I". lets try some examples."