Vowels FACE

The FACE vowel is generally monophthongised to /e/, and is occasionally rendered as a more open /ε/ in words like labour, later on. The spelling-derived /a/ occurs in a large number of cases, including adjacent, Barbados, blatant, Donatus, fatal, Graham, nasal, naval, papal, radar, Romanus, sadism and its derivatives, Satan, savour. The non-application of the RP CiV Tensing rule in some words further yields /a/ in words like Arabian, Athanasius, aviation, gymnasium, Ignatius, inter alia, radiation, spatial, salient. /ai/ occurs as a spelling pronunciation in Haiti and Jamaica.

When the FACE vowel is followed by a vocalic segment, the underlying /i/ is converted to [j], in keeping with a Gliding Rule which, in CamE, changes the intervocalic high vowels /i, u/ into the corresponding glides [j, w] (Simo Bobda 1994: 201-206). The phenomenon produces data like [leja, pleja, pɔtreja] layer, player, portrayer.