What's that sound?

[zenmonkey]

Actually now that I think of it this would be easier to resolve if OP dropped a recording of their voice saying the word.

OP did that on the last page.

Oops I missed that. It definitely sounds like [ɪit] to me.

Maybe, I'm sticking with [it] or [iːt]. Spending too much time on this anyway...

Here is the spectrum:

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 16.50.20.png

I see a small tonal colouring but no diphthong. You can play with PRAAT and create something you think is one or the other and compare. Have fun.

[kulaputra]

Nice. Based one the spectrogram you seem to be correct.

[eido]

So it's 'tonal coloring', that 'uh' sound?

[tastyonions]

I don't hear any "uh" (schwa) at all in your recording other than the r-colored one in "never."

[tarvos]

Eat doesn't have a diphthong, but I can imagine putting a glottal stop there in connected speech, I think zenmonkey has the right idea. As an experiment, I can record the same words in my accent (though I am not from Colorado, but learned to pronounce in Calgary, Alberta), though I am not even quite sure I've kept that accent as mine has strongly fluctuated over the years.

my voice is a little lower

[smallwhite]

I thought I found the answer 2 pages ago? Isn't it just the "fleece" thing (if we just mean /i/) or "fleece" and similar things (if we mean other vowels as well)?

[eido]

I don't know who to reply to first other than I know I've confused a lot of good people by listening too much to my own voice.

I'm from Colorado too, but I honestly have no clue what you might be referring to. At first I thought your dialect might have some kind of diphthongization, like you hear in some varieties of Southern American English. Then I listened to your recording, but I didn't hear anything like what you described. I did hear a slight fronting of the /u/ in 'dude', which is typical for dialects in the western US, more like [dʉd] or even [dɪ̯ʉd]. But nothing for the other words.

I suppose what you're hearing could potentially a glottal stop in certain words, but in that case, I don't know why it would sound like a schwa to you. And it would only occur word-initially (e.g. [ʔiːt] 'eat', [ˈʔɑɫweɪ̯z] 'always'), not in words like 'dude' or 'never'.

Interesting. I didn't actually go as slow as I could have. But what you heard is food for thought.

Wikipedia > English phonology > ... > Vowels

Wikipedia > General American > ... > Vowels

In particular,

Ctrl+F > "FLEECE" on the 2 pages above

Apparently I didn't pay attention to the right thing the first time. I hear that it's pure, but there's still that starting sound. I want to say if you got carried away it ('eat') could almost be like 의 in Korean but shorter. I don't know, though. It's just me, it's just me.

Thank you to everyone else who tried to help me, especially @zenmonkey with his cool analyzer.

You'll notice the shwa is quite different from the sound you are producing.

I called it that because that's the only thing I can relate it to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm not an expert at linguistics. Someday, someday.

Yeah, long i: can definitely be like that. I also suspect you may overthink it a little bit and start hearing things that aren't there (or just pronounce words not like you pronounce them in real speech). The second syllable in eating is definitely not like "tuh-eeng". It should be a shorter sound. Although short 'lax' ɪ in ending like "ing" does sound a little different from the usual ɪ (like in "ship"). It's higher on the diagram and closer to "i". I don't know. There are lots of different dialects and variations.

Probably right.

Anyway, you can leave this go. It'll drive me nuts but I won't bother anyone anymore with it.

And @tarvos, it's a bit hard to hear your recording, but your vowels sound purer than mine. You are a saint, Saint Tarvos. *hallelujah - cue the choir* I do hear that little sound that's making me mad, though. Never mind, though - never mind.

[tarvos]

Yeah, that might be a glottal stop you're hearing.

My vowels sound different because I'm not from the same area as you, so I don't speak with a very strong American accent. When I record a full text you'll also hear a couple differences

[zenmonkey]

:?: I thought I found the answer 2 pages ago? Isn't it just the "fleece" thing (if we just mean /i/) or "fleece" and similar things (if we mean other vowels as well)?

Sometimes the rabbit hole leads nowhere further than the tea party. But you can spend a lot of time at the tea party.

[tarvos]

The tea party sounds like an idea.