Unaccented Vowels.
The two chief unaccented vowels in English are 
and
i, together with the rarer o. The former may be regarded as
a shortened oe, as in "her," into which it always passes when
emphasised or prolonged, but it is really nothing but a voice murmur
without any definite configuration. The i is an intermediate vowel
between i and e, and might as well be written e as
i. It may be regarded either as a very open i or a very
close e.
The following are examples of :-
temt (attempt), pouz (oppose),
pon (upon), tdei (to-day).
souf (sofa), menshn (mention),
peishns (patience), kært
(carrot).
faadh (father), on (honour),
mezh (measure).
faowd (forward), shepd
(shepherd).
feivrit (favourite), mezhriq
(measuring).
is often dropped before l, n and m;
always when the is preceded by t or d
and followed by l or n:-
metl (metal), gaadn (garden), gaadniq (gardening), mtn
(mutton).
iivl (evil), loukl (local), simbl (cymbal, symbol).
When two or more unaccented s or is follow one
another, one of them is often thrown out, as in -
hist()ri (history), feiv()rit
(favourite), vedzh{/i}tbl
(vegetable).
i is less common than . It is most usual as
a weakening of front vowels, especially when i or y is
written:-
piti (pity), mndi (Monday).
divaid (divide), ditekt (detect).
ræbit (rabbit), fishiz (fishes), biliti
(ability).
It is the regular unaccented vowel before dzh, even when a is written:-
vilidzh (village), kæridzh (carriage), kolidzh (college).
In rapid speech i is apt to pass into , except
when final.
Unaccented o in ordinary speech is simply
rounded. When dwelt on it becomes ou. Examples are -
pteito (potato), folo (follow), felo (fellow).
In rapid speech this o passes into .
These vowels occur also in unaccented monosyllables. Compare "a man"
( mæn) with "against"
(genst), "to go" (t gou) with
"to-day" (t dei), "for all" (fr
aol) with "forgive" (fgiv), "of course"
(v kaos) with "offence"
(fens).
the and to have two distinct unaccented forms. Before
consonants they both have , while before vowels they
assume the fuller forms dhi and tu:-
dh mæn (the man), dhi enmi
(the enemy).
t gou (to go), tu ent (to enter).
It was, I believe, first noticed by Mr. Ellis that "that" as a
demonstrative is always full dhæt, while as a conjunction and
relative pronoun it becomes dht:- ai
nou dht dhæt dht dhæt
mæn sez iz truu (I know that that that that man says is true).
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James Chandler 1998.