"Ex-ee-dus"

[Jim Parish]

I'm listening to a Bob Marley album, and something struck me about the
song "Exodus". Throughout, Marley's pronunciation of the title word has
a high front vowel in the second syllable. (I think it's an /i/, but it might
be /I/.) I checked the Oxford Guide to World English section on
Caribbean English, but saw nothing that would account for this. Does
anyone have any thoughts?

Jim Parish

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