Phonetic alphabets

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:41 PM -0600 12/2/04, Barbara Need wrote:
>I just got off the phone with someone offering me a free subscription
>to an IT trade magazine, and she had to spell something for me. What
>I HEARD her say was, "e as in I". Of course, what she meant was "e as
>in eye". In what variety/varieties of English are these not
>homophones?
>
Well, for starters, in those in which "I" is [oy] and in which "eye"
isn't.  I know, not much help.

Larry