diabetes

[Alice Faber]

Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>Well, I take back some of my stress-rlaated vowel-quality ramblings.
>I was thinking only of the schwa versus [I] pronunciation, but some
>people have pointed out (and I have certainly heard) an [i]
>pronunciation but with a following voiced consonant. I wonder now
>(and this is surely lexical) if you can get [i] without a voiced
>consonant? - [-is]. I think I have never heard it.

Well, this New Yorker certainly has /i/ (of roughly the same quality)
in both the ultimate and penultimate syllables of "diabetes". It's
(roughly) "beady" with an /s/ on the end. My doctor, who certainly
*sounds* like a native of the New Haven area, pronounces it the same
way.

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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963