The Universal Atlas of Phonetic Evolution
Back to Matrix [i] → [e] Edit this Data

[e]→[i]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 5/5

Close-mid front unrounded vowel to Close front unrounded vowel

The shift from the mid front vowel [e] to the high front vowel [i] is a process of Vowel Raising. This can occur as a regular sound change in stressed syllables, part of a chain shift, or as a reduction process in unstressed syllables.

Phonetic Effects

Vowel Raising

Language Examples

take [teːkə]→[tiːk] > [teɪk]— Middle English long /e:/ raised to /i:/ as part of the Great Vowel Shift (later diphthongizing in many words).
meet [meːtə]→meet [miːt]— Long /e:/ regularly raised to /i:/.
fēcī (Latin)→hice (Spanish)— Raising of /e:/ to /i/ in some Romance verb forms.
ре́ка [rʲe-] (stressed)→река́ [rʲɪ-] (unstressed)— Unstressed /e/ reduces and raises towards [i] (phonetically [ɪ]) in Russian.
Proto-Mayan *eː (long close-mid front vowel)→i— All Cholan languages (Ch'ol, Ch'orti', Chontal) raised Proto-Mayan long *eː to short /i/. This is one of two parallel raising changes in Cholan (the other being *oː > u), eliminating vowel length in the branch. The change is well-documented in Kaufman and Norman's Proto-Cholan reconstruction and is diagnostic for Cholan membership.

Related Transformations

More Raising Shifts

Sources & References

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