IX. OF THE LETTER I.
The vowel I has three sounds, each very common to it, and perhaps properly its own:—
1. The open, long, full, or primal i; as in life, fine, final, time, bind, child, sigh, pint, resign. This is a diphthongal sound, equivalent to the sounds of middle a and open e quickly united.
2. The close, curt, short, or stopped i; as in ink, limit, disfigure, mimicking.
3. The feeble, faint, or slender i, accentless; as in divest, doctrinal, diversity.
This third sound is equivalent to that of open e, or ee uttered feebly. I generally has this sound when it occurs at the end of an unaccented syllable: except at the end of Latin words, or of ancient names, where it is open or long; as in literati, Nervii, Eli, Levi.
In some words, (principally from other modern languages,) i has the full sound of open e, under the accent; as in Porto Rico, machine, magazine, antique, shire.
Accented i followed by a vowel, has its open or primal sound; and the vowels belong to separate syllables; as in pliant, diet, satiety, violet, pious. Unaccented i followed by a vowel, has its feeble sound; as in expatiate, obedient, various, abstemious.