IPA phoneme \aɪ\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/aɪ/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "price", "fly" and "time". This diphthong is informally called **“long I”** and a bit more formally "the long sound of the letter I".

In strict IPA diphthongs need an inverted breve under their less prominent vowel: /aɪ̯/. However the notation we are using does not have the symbol /a/ by itself, and therefore we know that a vowel after /a/ has an implied inverted breve.

This vowel can be pronounced as [aɪ̯], [ʌɪ̯] or (in Australian English) [ɑe̯]. In Southern American English this phoneme can be the monophthong [aː].

At the advice of Clive Upton the *Concise Oxford Dictionary* altered the British tradition and now uses /ʌɪ/ instead of /aɪ/; later *Oxford Dictionaries Online* followed the same convention. The phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis says "the verdict on /ʌɪ/ alongside /aʊ/ must be that it is a very regrettable departure from EPD14b [Daniel Jones *English Pronouncing Dictionary]* that would be better abandoned in future."

## Common words

**IPA consonants**

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of **/aɪ/** include the following:

### One syllable

* with "**ie**": die, lie, pie, tie
* with "**i**": bind, blind, child, climb, find, hi, I, kind, mild, mind, pint, wild, wind *(verb)*, whilst
* with "**i**" and magic e: bike, drive, file, fine, ice, life, like, line, live *(adj.)*, mile, mine, nice, pine, price, quite, rise, side, site, size, smile, strike, time, while, white, wide, wife, wine, write
* with "**ig**": sign
* with "**igh**": bright, fight, flight, fright, height, high, light, might, night, right, sigh, sight, slight, thigh, tight
* with the letter **"y"**: by, cry, dry, dye, fly, fry, my, rye, shy, sky, style, try, type, why
* others: buy, guy; eye

### Several syllables

* with "**i**"

followed by one consonant: finally, **i**dentity, item, primary, private
followed by two or more consonants: behind, library, title
followed by a vowel: idea, science, society, variety, trial
* with "**i**" and magic e: arrive, decide, define, describe, exercise, inside, outside, provide, realise*BrE*/realize, surprise
* with "**ig**": align, assign, design, resign
* with "**y**" and magic e: analyse*BrE*/analyze*AmE*
* with "**y**"

ending in stressed /aɪ/: apply, deny, July, nearby, rely, reply, supply
ending in /aɪ/ with secondary stress: identify, occupy, qualify, satisfy, specify
other: cycle, hypothesis, ps**y**chology
## Less common words

* with "**i**":

with magic e: bite, knife, precise, pride, rice, slice, wipe, wise
followed by one consonant: binary, ivory, Niger, N**i**geria, North Carolina, South Carolina, tiger
followed by two or more consonants: bible, grind
followed by a vowel: biography, Brian, diagnose, Diana, Diane, Iowa, lion, Ohio
* with "**igh**": Brighton
* with "**y**": byte, dynamic, hyaena,*BrE* hyena,*AmE* hygiene, python, rhyme, Ryan, spy, sty, tycoon, Wyoming
* with "**ei**": apartheid, gesundheit, kaleidoscope, leitmotif, poltergeist, Rottweiler
* with "**ey**": Cheyenne /ʃaɪˈæn, ʃaɪˈen/, geyser*AmE*
* with "**ae**": maestro, tae kwon do
* with "**ai**": aikido, bonsai, daiquiri, haiku, Hawaii /həˈwaɪiː/, kaiser, samurai, Taiwan, Thailand
* with "**ay**": papaya, Paraguay, Uruguay
* coyote: /kaɪˈəʊ.tiː, ˈkaɪ.oʊt,*AmE* kɔɪˈəʊ.tiː*BrE*/

## /aɪ/ in combination with /r/

In some words "ir" and "yr" are pronounced /aɪər/, and in others they are pronounced /aɪr/.

* /aɪə/: acquire, choir, desire, entire, fire, hire, inspire, Ireland, iron /aɪərn/, require, retire, tire, tyre*BrE*, umpire, wire
* /aɪ/: gyrate, irate, pirate, polystyrene, pyromaniac, spiral, virus
* /aɪ/ or /aɪə/: environment

See also Triphthong.

## Homophones

* aisle - I'll - isle; bite - byte; buy - by; cite - site - sight; die - dye; fined - find; high - hi; I - eye; knight - night; mined - mind; right - rite - write; sighed - side; sighs - size; sight - site; time - thyme; whine - wine; why - Y.

## Heteronyms

* live /lɪv/ *(verb),* /laɪv/ *(adjective)*
* multiply /ˈmʌltɪplaɪ/ *(verb),* /ˈmʌltəpliː/ *(adverb)*
* wind /wɪnd/ *(air movement),* /waɪnd/ *(to tighten a spring)*

## Variant pronunciations

* /ə, ɪ, aɪ/: direct, director, directory
* either /ˈaɪðər, ˈiːðər/, neither /ˈnaɪðər, ˈniːðər/
* fragile /ˈfrædʒaɪl,*BrE* ˈfrædʒəl*AmE*/
* geyser /ˈɡaɪzər,*AmE* ˈɡiːzər*BrE*/

## References

1. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries Online, Key to pronunciations (British and World English dictionary). See ʌɪ as in m*y*.
2. ↑ Jack Windsor Lewis, IPA vowel symbols for British English in dictionaries, Section 8. /ʌɪ/ versus /aɪ/.

## See also

* Magic e
* Decoding the letter I
* Decoding and spelling exercises: /ɪ/ vs /aɪ/
* Pronunciation exercises: /eɪ/ vs /aɪ/

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation