Tense vowels FLEECE

This vowel is typically realized in standard North American fashion, as tense and, when long, as slightly upglided. The conservative nature of traditional NfldE – whether of SW English or of Irish ancestry – is in evidence, however, in the form of a highly recessive FACE-like pronunciation in such -ea- words as sea, heave and beat. In standard varieties, such words (which in Middle English contained /ε:/) underwent merger with the FLEECE set several centuries ago; in conservative NfldE, however, they maintained their historical mid vowel. Likewise, in highly conservative speech of the Irish Avalon, the FACE vowel has occasionally been noted in at least some FLEECE words deriving from Middle English /e:/, e.g. seeing, sleepy.

In a handful of English-settled rural areas of the province, both -ee- and –ea-words display variable centralization in conservative speech, so that tea may be articulated as [t^həɪ].