Unstressed 'e' in Words like Happy

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History

For many years, cuers were instructed that the spoken English vowel /iēeeiēeeiēee/ when unstressed changes to /ɪĭiɪĭiɪĭi/. So, the final syllable of the word happy was cued at the throat: /hhhhhhhhhæăaæăaæăaˈˈˈˈˈˈˈˈˈpppppppppɪĭiɪĭiɪĭi/

Does /iēeeiēeeiēee/ really Become /ɪĭiɪĭiɪĭi/?

This can happen. Unstressed prefixes especially can change /ɪĭiɪĭiɪĭi/ or /əəəəəəəəə/. Consider words like beneath. When the second syllable is stressed, the first syllable is likely to be pronounced as /bbbbbbbbbɪĭiɪĭiɪĭi/.