vowel raising/fronting

[Michael H Covarrubias]

I first heard "Santy Claus" for 'Santa Claus' years ago.  (It was probably
"sanny".)  That was when I was in junior high.

Years later in Indiana I've come across a similar schwa "fortition" on a local
commercial.  The announcer for local business named "Second Glance" repeats the
name several times, pronouncing "Second" [sEkiN] (N='eng' nasal).

I've also heard the [I] of "him" raised to [i] when unstressed--for instance in
a phrase like "ask him" or "tell him".

These start as 3 distinct vowels, but is there a possible generalization here?
(Something other than the obvious "they're all becoming [i]")

Michael

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   English Language & Linguistics
   Purdue University
   mcovarru at purdue.edu

   web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
  <http://wishydig.blogspot.com>

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