Spoken aloud: "Some highschool kids get high".
The "high" vowel is the same in both
87.5%
They're different
12.5%
Poll ended at .
@isocat The sound is the same but I tend to extend the latter for a little bit. You could also say the former is clipped. Same sound, different duration.

@octothorpe The vowels aren't the same for me. Both diphthongs, but not the same one. The 'high" vowel in "high" by itself is ah-ee, but in "high school" it's uh-ee, same as in "rice" and "nice" and "splice".

The Cambridge Dictionary does not show a phonetic symbol for my uh-ee diphthong; it has only the ah-ee one, exemplified by "eye", and that's the one it shows for "high", "rice", "nice", and "splice". Wikipedia has a chart giving that same ah-ee diphthong for both "lied" (uses ah-ee in my speech) and "light" (uh-ee in my speech). And the more I look, the more sources I find saying uh-ee is not one of the eight English diphthongs.

I'm not going to start pronouncing "light" as though the vowel were the same as in "pride". It just ain't!

@troublewithwords

#Linguistics

@isocat @octothorpe @troublewithwords
There are many different varieties of English. The description you give suggests what is often referred to in linguistics as β€œCanadian raising” (before [s], e.g., also β€œright” vs. β€œride” -- how about for you?). It's not just Canadian, though. Let's appreciate such diversity!

@ancientsounds I'm not quite sure I understand your query. "right" is uh-ee and "ride" is ah-ee for me, with or without [s] involved.

Also: "ice wine" has two different vowels (uh-ee, ah-ee).

@octothorpe @troublewithwords

@isocat @octothorpe @troublewithwords

Sorry, I was being overly specific when mentioning [s]. The key factor is said to be whether the following consonant is voiceless (s, f, t, p, k) or voiced (z, v, d, b, l, nasals etc). To test this theory, I'm gonna predict that you may say rice, rife, ripe, hike with β€œuh-ee” [ʌΙͺ] and rise, arrive, jibe, rile, rhyme with β€œah-ee” [Ι‘Ιͺ]. Right (ruh-eet)?

(You're right of course that dictionaries don't show such details in their transcriptions.)

@ancientsounds

Right, but it's not a clean division; "sider" is [Ι‘Ιͺ] and "cider" is [ʌΙͺ] despite the voiced consonant, and likewise "rider" is [Ι‘Ιͺ] and "Ryder" (an American truck-rental outfit) is [ʌΙͺ].

@octothorpe @troublewithwords

…and come to think of it, "Khyber" is [Ι‘Ιͺ], but "cyber" and "ribosome" and "riboflavin" are [ʌΙͺ].

@ancientsounds @octothorpe @troublewithwords

More I ponder, deeper goes the rabbit hole. "Hypergolic" is [ʌΙͺ], but "high-performance" is [Ι‘Ιͺ]. "Hieroglyphic" is [ʌΙͺ], but "pyrophoric" is [Ι‘Ιͺ].

@ancientsounds @octothorpe @troublewithwords

@isocat @octothorpe @troublewithwords

Your sider/cider and rider/Ryder contrasts would be sufficient for some phonologists to conclude that [ʌΙͺ] and [Ι‘Ιͺ] are distinct phonemes in your variety of English. Personally speaking, it looks to me like a more complex, multivariate pattern, but that would require a bigger study to get to the bottom of it. A number of studies of β€œCanadian raising” have already been published though e.g. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284072352_The_Origin_of_Canadian_Raising_in_Ontario

@ancientsounds You're bringing a smile, as I think back to Russ Tomlin illustrating contrastive phonemes by dint of "Poughkeepsie" as spoken by a native AmE speaker ("p'KIPsee") versus a native Mexican Spanish speaker ("pooKEEPsee").

@octothorpe @troublewithwords

@isocat @octothorpe @troublewithwords

Heheh naa mate

Penguins and polar bears are in complementary distribution as well

@ancientsounds

…ruh…

Y'lost me on that last curve.

@octothorpe @troublewithwords

@isocat @octothorpe @troublewithwords

Sorry, it's a phoneticians' joke about (against) phoneme theory. Two sounds (such as your 2 diphthongs there) are said to be instances/members of the same phoneme/abstract category if they only ever occur in distinct contexts.

As with any joke, it completely deflates when you try to explain it. Never mind.

Great chatting, anyway. Have a good week!