Re: How to Make Chicken Cacciatore (was: phonetics by guesswork)

Mark J. Reed wrote:
(re J. "Mach" Wust's trouble with [I] vs. [e])
> What contrast?  Now I'm more confused.  You said that the vowel in "pet"
> is
> clearly distinct from both [e] and [E], and I asked what variety of
> English you were talking about.  In GA, the vowel in "pet" *is* [E].
As I wrote earlier, I'm puzzled by JMW's problem, since the contrast does
exist in German.  But [I] and [e] _are_ close to each other in the vowel
triangle; in fact, from reading pronunciation guides to Dutch way back when
(I'd never heard a word of the language) I got the impression that Du.
"short i" as in "ik" etc. was "close" to [e]--the Dutch speakers on this
list have disabused me of that idea.

Thinking about it, I wonder where his English teacher came from??? Perhaps
South Africa, where they seem to raise and slightly tense their vowels,
compared to RP and Murkin?  Perhaps some area of Britain does the same?