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I have observed some English speakers in North America who seem to produce this assimilation in words like running /ˈrʌnɪŋ/ (as [ˈrʌnin]) or winning /ˈwɪnɪŋ/ (as [ˈwɪnin]). I'm specifically interested in when the final vowel becomes [i] or [iː] and not /ɪ/ (as in some Southern American English accents, which produce [ˈrʌnɪn] and [ˈwɪnɪn]).

Is this a regional accent?

I found some additional anecdotal discussion at the following links:

cpit
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Hunter Morris
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    You're saying the vowel changes (becomes tenser) as well as the consonant? That's news to me. And I'm not sure that you can call this assimilation: what is being assimilated to what, exactly? – Colin Fine Jun 16 '12 at 11:45
  • It's common in other varieties of English, in the British isles and in Northe America (but is not standard). – Mitch Jun 16 '12 at 12:38
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    This seems like it's the combination of two seemingly contradictory processes. (1) the change of /ɪ/ to /i/ or /i:/ before /ŋ/, common in the U.S., particularly on the West Coast (discussed here). (2) the change of /ŋ/ to /n/ in the suffix -ing, quite common in many dialects. I would think that (2) would inhibit (1). Possibly you're only noticing the change of /ɪ/ to /i/ for these speakers because there is no longer an /ŋ/ after the /i/, and you don't notice the same change before /ŋ/ because it's so common in the U.S. – Peter Shor Jun 16 '12 at 14:32
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    For only $250,000 per 100 speakers per year, sociolinguists can find out precisely what's going on, if you really want to know that badly. Without a longitudinal survey, however, it's impossible to know how the two processes Peter mentioned will interact, except that it's very like to vary with all kinds of socioeconomic factors, which are themselves changing. – John Lawler Jun 16 '12 at 16:23
  • My dialect (w. Michigan) does this. FWIW – Mark Beadles Jun 16 '12 at 17:34
  • I also notice this in people's speech at work (California) and from radio/TV. Glad it's already being discussed. My guess was that native speakers of English here get influenced by native Spanish speakers who naturally pronounce the -ing ending with the long /i:/ when speaking English. Two examples: NPR's Latina host Maria Hinojosa and , much more notably, Modern Family actress Sofía Vergara. – langtechie Jun 17 '12 at 00:10
  • @Hunter Morris: Can you provide a link to a recording of native English speakers using this pronunciation. (I can't think of any (nonforeign) accents in which winning sounds like quinine without the /k/.) – Daniel Harbour Jun 17 '12 at 08:45
  • @ColinFine: You're right; it probably isn't assimilation as Peter Shor mentions above. – Hunter Morris Jun 18 '12 at 17:32
  • @DanielHarbour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP5VIhbJwFs#t=0m45s At approximately the 0:48 mark, Gates says '...incoming President Faust...' then again at 1:03 '...I've been waiting...' and several times later throughout the speech. I will try to find others so that it doesn't seem like a Bill Gates affectation. – Hunter Morris Jun 18 '12 at 17:33
  • @ColinFine: To answer your question, yes I think there are two changes: /ɪ/ to /i/ and /ŋ/ to /n/. I'm not a linguist though, so I don't have the training to really pick these apart. If you listen to the video of Bill Gates speaking I posted, that might give a better idea of what I'm talking about. – Hunter Morris Jun 18 '12 at 17:44
  • @JohnLawler: So in other words it was a stupid question? – Hunter Morris Jun 18 '12 at 18:13
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    @Hunter Morris: No, it's a good question. It's just that nobody knows the answer, and it's very expensive to find out for sure. Plus the funding level for sociolinguistics is pretty low these days, and expensive projects like this are unlikely. – John Lawler Jun 18 '12 at 20:12
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    have a look at Professor Wells' blog post about this vowel shift http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/i.html – Alex B. Jun 18 '12 at 23:47
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    "/i/ The vowel in him, sit, and bid is moving in two directions.

    Before ng, it shifts towards the vowel in beam, bean Example: think sounds like theenk " http://www.stanford.edu/~eckert/vowels.html

     – Alex B. Jun 18 '12 at 23:52
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    The tense vowel in -ing is common; I don't think it's terribly recent or due to Spanish influence, as my parents and I grew up far from any such. But the combination of the tense vowel with develarizarion (or "'g-dropping", as the media calls it when Obama or Palin do it) is not something I'd noticed before. – Mark Reed Jun 23 '12 at 14:01

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As @JohnLawler points out, it would take an extensive sociolinguistic study to arrive at something definitive. Based on various bits of research provided in the comments, this accent appears often in speakers from California who perform a "velar pinch." I'm marking this answered because I think until a deeper study is done, this is what we have:

Hunter Morris
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  • From the blog post: Western Canadians, and just plain westerners in general, ‘bag’ can rhyme perfectly with ‘vague.’ Does that mean they would say: Those are the bayggiest pants I have ever seen? :) – Lambie Apr 06 '21 at 16:22
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I'm not completely sure that I'm understanding you but it sounds like you are describing the "yankee" accent..? I would describe this as a slight tendency not to open the mouth fully while speeking and thereby pushing certain vowel sounds into the nasal cavity.

M Yui
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