They are often used interchangeably in dictionaries, but if you take them as IPA symbols they are two different vowel sounds. /e/ is higher in the IPA chart of vowels. / ɛ / is lower. This means your mouth is a little more open, because your jaw

I'm confused by your "help" reference. What I intended to ... AmE dictionary that I have seen. Thanks for the help. To a Southerner, (hEj@lp) is exactly the pronunciation that an AmE dictionay indicates. And it's not necessarily

I'm confused by your "help" reference. What I intended to say about "help" (and my selection of that word was ... like "HAY-ulp", which is not like the pronunciation in any AmE dictionary that I have seen. Thanks