Diphthong Totally Explained

Everything about Falling Diphthongs totally explained

In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, "diphthongos", literally "with two sounds," or "with two tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement, or glide, from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. While "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, are said to have one target tongue position, diphthongs have two target tongue positions. Pure vowels are represented in the by one symbol:
English "sum" as /sʌm/, for example. Diphthongs are represented by two symbols, for example English "same" as /seɪm/, where the two vowel symbols are intended to represent approximately the beginning and ending tongue positions.

Types of diphthongs

Falling (or descending) diphthongs start with a vowel of higher prominence (higher pitch or louder) and end in a vowel with less prominence, like /aɪ̯/ in "eye", while rising (or ascending) diphthongs begin with a less prominent vowel and end with a more prominent vowel, like /ɪ̯a/ in "yard". The element with less prominence in the diphthong may be transcribed as a semivowel in the case that there's a corresponding one, thus for example /ja/. However, when the whole diphthong is analysed as being one single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed as vowels. Note also that in languages like English and Italian, rising diphthongs are considered not true diphthongs by many phoneticians, but sequences of a semivowel and a vowel.
   In closing diphthongs, the second element is more close than the first (for example [ai]); in opening diphthongs, more open (for example [ia]). Closing diphthongs tend to be falling, and opening diphthongs are generally rising, because open vowels are more sonorous and therefore tend to be more prominent. However, exceptions to this rule are not rare in the world's languages. In Finnish, for instance, the opening diphthongs /ie/ and /uo/ are true falling diphthongs, since they begin louder and with higher pitch and fall in prominence during the diphthong (this is indicated by bolding in the previous transcriptions).
   A centering diphthong is one that begins with a more peripheral vowel and ends with a more central one, such as /ɪə/, /ɛə/, and /ʊə/ in Received Pronunciation or /iə/ and /uə/ in Irish. Many centering diphthongs, namely those that begin with a close or close-mid vowel, are also opening diphthongs (eg. [iə], [uə]).
   Some languages contrast short and long diphthongs, the latter usually being described as having a long first element. Languages that contrast three quantities in diphthongs are extremely rare, but not unheard of: Northern Sami is known to contrast long, short and finally stressed diphthongs, the last of which are distinguished by a long second element.

Diphthongs in various languages

Croatian

i(j)e, as in mlijeko

Croatian dialects also have uo, as in kuonj, ruod, uon while, in Standard Croatian, these words are konj, rod, on)

Czech

There are three diphthongs in Czech:

/aʊ̯/ as in auto (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)

/eʊ̯/ as in euro (in words of foreign origin only)

/oʊ̯/ as in koule Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are not regarded as diphthongs, they're pronounced with /j/ between the vowels [ɪja,ɪjɛ, ɪjɪ, ɪjo, ɪju].

Dutch

Dutch>

	Netherlandic	Belgian
	/ɛi/
	/œy/
	/ʌu/	/ɔu/
	/ei/	/eː/
	/øy/	/øː/
	/ou/	/oː/

/ei/, /øy/, and /ou/ are normally pronounced as closing diphthongs except before /ɾ/ in the same word, in which case they're centering diphthongs: [eə], [øə], and [oə]. In many dialects, they're monophthongized The dialect of Hamont (in Limburg) has five centring diphthongs and contrasts long and short forms of /ɛi/, /œy/, /ɔu/, and /ɑu/.

English

	RP (British)	Australian	American
	RP (British)	Australian	GA	Canadian
low	/əʊ/	/əʉ/	/oʊ/
loud	/aʊ/	/æɔ/	/aʊ/	/aʊ/
lout	/aʊ/	/æɔ/	/aʊ/	[əʊ]
lied	/aɪ/	/ɑe/	/aɪ/	/aɪ/
light	/aɪ/	/ɑe/	/aɪ/	[əɪ]
lane	/eɪ/	/æɪ/	/eɪ/
loin	/ɔɪ/	/oɪ/	/ɔɪ/
leer	/ɪə/	/ɪə/	/ɪɚ/
lair	/ɛə/	/eː/	/ɛɚ/
lure	/ʊə/	/ʊə/	/ʊɚ/

Canadian English exhibits allophony of /aʊ/ and /aɪ/ called Canadian raising.

In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to [ɛː] and [oː] respectively. Australian English speakers more readily monophthongize the former but it's listed here anyway.

In Rhotic dialects, words like pair, poor, and peer can be analyzed as diphthongs, although other descriptions analyze them as vowels with /ɹ/ in the coda.

Faroese

Diphthongs in Faroese are:

/ai/ as in bein (can also be short)

/au/ as in havn

/ɛa/ as in har, mær

/ɛi/ as in hey

/ɛu/ as in nevnd

/œu/ as in nøvn

/ʉu/ as in hús

/ʊi/ as in mín, bý, ið (can also be short)

/ɔa/ as in ráð

/ɔi/ as in hoyra (can also be short)

/ɔu/ as in sól, ovn

Finnish

All Finnish diphthongs are falling. Notably, Finnish has true opening diphthongs (for example /uo/), which are not very common crosslinguistically compared to centering diphthongs (for example /uə/ in English).

closing

/ai/ as in laiva (ship)

/ei/ as in keinu (swing)

/oi/ as in poika (boy)

/æi/ as in äiti (mother)

/øi/ as in öisin (at night)

/au/ as in lauha (mild)

/eu/ as in leuto (mild)

/ou/ as in koulu (school)

/ey/ as in leyhyä (to waft)

/æy/ as in täysi (full)

/øy/ as in löytää (to find)

close

/ui/ as in uida (to swim)

/yi/ as in lyijy (lead)

/iu/ as in viulu (violin)

/iy/ as in siistiytyä (to clean up)

opening

/ie/ as in kieli (tongue)

/uo/ as in suo (bog)

/yø/ as in yö (night)

French

Some diphthongs in French:

/wa/ as in roi "king"

/wi/ as in oui "yes"

/ɥi/ as in huit "eight"

/jɛ̃/ as in bien "well (adv.)"

/jɛ/ as in Ariège

/aj/ as in travail "work"

/ej/ as in Marseille

/œj/ as in feuille "leaf"

/uj/ as in grenouille "frog"

/jø/ as in vieux "old" All French diphthongs are typically analysed as a combination of a vowel and a semi-vowel (in either order).

German

Diphthongs in German:

/aɪ/ as in Reich 'empire'

/aʊ/ as in Maus 'mouse'

/ɔʏ/ as in neu 'new'

/eːɐ/ as in sehr 'very'

/iːɐ/ as in dir 'you (dative)'

/oːɐ/ as in Bor 'boron (element)'

/øːɐ/ as in Öhr 'eye (hole in a needle)'

/uːɐ/ as in nur 'only'

/yːɐ/ as in Tür 'door' Some diphthongs in Bernese, a Swiss German dialect:

/iə/ as in Bier 'beer'

/yə/ as in Füess 'feet'

/uə/ as in Schue 'shoes'

/ow/ as in Stou 'holdup'

/aw/ as in Stau 'stable'

/aːw/ as in Staau 'steel'

/æw/ as in Wäut 'world'

/æːw/ as in wääut 'elects'

/ʊw/ as in tschúud 'guilty'

Hungarian

The general consensus is that standard Hungarian has no diphthongs. However linguists acknowledge that even in standard speech word-initial au- (as in autó 'car', augusztus 'August') is often realised as one syllable, that's like the diphthong [ɒu̯] or [ɒʊ̯]. Note, that in other positions and native words (the above examples are loan words) even the abovementioned speakers realise with a hiatus, that's as two syllables in words like kalauz /ˈkɒ.lɒ.uz/. On the other hand some phoneticians argue, that -aj, -ej, -éj etc. (for example in haj 'hair', fej 'head') in Hungarian are actually diphthongs /ɒɪ̯/, /ɛɪ̯/, etc. However this view isn't shared by many, the general position being that this is a vowel–consonant combination /aj/, /ɛj/, etc. respectively. (This is supported by many facts, one of them being that agglutinated forms of the word separate the semivowel from the vowel into another syllable: fejes 'with head, related to head (adj.)' /fɛ.jɛʃ/ rather than hypothetical *[fɛɪ̯.ɛʃ]).
Note, that many Hungarian dialects have diphthongs in place of Standard Hungarian long vowels, such as [øy] for /ő/, [ɒu] for /ó/ (northeastern dialect), or [uo] for /ó/ (western dialect).

Icelandic

Diphthongs in Icelandic are the following:

/aw/ as in átta, "eight"

/ow/ as in nóg, "enough"

/œɥ/ as in auga, "eye"

/aj/ as in hæ, "hi"

/ej/ as in þeir, "they" Combinations of j and a vowel are the following:

/ja/ as in jata, "manger"

/jaw/ as in já, "yes"

/jo/ as in joð, "iodine," "jay," "yod" (only in a handful of words of foreign origin)

/jow/ as in jól, "Christmas"

/jœ/ as in jötunn, "giant"

/jaj/ as in jæja, "oh well"

Italian

Diphthongs in standard Italian:

falling

/ai/ as in avrai

/ei/ as in dei (preposition)

/ɛi/ as in direi

/oi/ as in voi

/ɔi/ as in poi

/au/ as in pausa

/eu/ as in Europa

/ɛu/ as in feudo

rising

/ja/ as in piano

/je/ as in ateniese

/jɛ/ as in piede

/jo/ as in fiore

/jɔ/ as in piove

/ju/ as in più

/wa/ as in guado

/we/ as in quello

/wɛ/ as in guerra

/wi/ as in qui

/wo/ as in liquore

/wɔ/ as in nuoto Other combinations (including [ui], [iu], [ii]) are often considered hiatuses by grammarians; however they're often phonetically true diphthongs, such as in poetry and common speech.

Latvian

Diphthongs in Latvian

falling

/ai/ as in laiva

/ei/ as in beigas

/oi/ as in koika

/ui/ as in puika

/au/ as in tauva

/eu/ as in tev

/iu/ as in pliukš

/ou/ as in souls

/yu/ as in myusu (dial.)

/ie/ as in iela

/uo/ as in ruoka

/ae/ as in faetons

/ao/ as in aorta

/oa/ as in foajē

/ua/ as in puante

/ue/ as in Sueca

/ja/ as in slapja as also /jā/, /jai/, /jau/, /je/, /jē/, /jæː/, /ji/, /jie/, /jō/, /ju/, /juo/, /jū/

/wa/ as in lauva

/wai/ as in lauvai

/wā/ as in lauvā

/we/ as in lauvene

/wæː/ as in lauvēns

/wi/ as in lauviņa

/wu/ as in lauvu

rising

/aī/ as in Aīda

/aū/ as in Saūda

/eā/ as in teātris

/eō/ as in neōns

/eū/ as in Seūla

/iā/ as in piāno

/iē/ as in diēzs

/iī/ as in šiīts

/iō/ as in odiōzs

/oā/ as in oāze

/oē/ as in poēma

/oī/ as in asteroīds

/uā/ as in kuluāri

/uī/ as in fluīdi

/uō/ as in fluōrs

/uū/ as in vakuūms

Northern Sami

The diphthong system in Northern Sami varies considerably from one dialect to another. The Western Finnmark dialects distinguish four different qualities of opening diphthongs:

/eæ/ as in leat "to be"

/ie/ as in giella "language"

/oa/ as in boahtit "to come"

/uo/ as in vuodjat "to swim" In terms of quantity, Northern Sami shows a three-way contrast between long, short and finally stressed diphthongs. The last are distinguished from long and short diphthongs by a markedly long and stressed second component. Diphthong quantity isn't indicated in spelling.

Norwegian

There are five diphthongs in Norwegian:

/æɪ/ as in nei, "no"

/øʏ/ as in øy, "island"

/æʉ/ as in sau, "sheep"

/ɑɪ/ as in hai, "shark"

/ɔʏ/ as in joik, "Sami song" In addition there's the diphthong /ʉʏ/, but this only occur in the word hui in the expression i hui og hast "in great haste".

Portuguese

European Portuguese has 14 phonemic diphthongs (10 oral and 4 nasal), all of which are falling diphthongs formed by a vowel and a nonsyllabic high vowel. Brazilian Portuguese has roughly the same amount, although the two dialects have slightly different pronunciations. An [w] onglide after /k/ or /g/ as in quando [kʊ̯ɐ̃dʊ] ('when') or [ˈgʊ̯aɾdɐ] ('guard') may also form rising diphthongs and triphthongs. Additionally, in casual speech, adjacent heterosyllabic vowels may combine into diphthongs and triphthongs or even sequences of them; in more formal speech, these are realized as hiatus for example, férias [ˈfɛ.ɾi.ɐʃ] ~ [ˈfɛ.ɾjɐʃ].

	EP	BP
anéis	/ɛj/
sai	/aj/
sei	/ɐj/	/ej/
mói	/ɔj/
moita	/oj/
anuis	/uj/
viu	/iw/
meu	/ew/
véu	/ɛw/
mau	/aw/
cem	/ɐ̃j/	/ẽj/
mãe	/ɐ̃j/	/ɐ̃j/
anões	/õj/
muita	/ũj/
mão	/ɐ̃w/

In addition, phonetic diphthongs are formed in Brazilian Portuguese by the vocalization of /l/ in the syllable coda with words like sol [sɔʊ̯] ('sun') and sul [suʊ̯] ('south') as well as by yodization of vowels preceding /s/ for words like arroz [aʁoɪ̯s] ('rice') and mas [maɪ̯s] ('but').

Romanian

Romanian builds its descending diphthongs using two semivowels and its ascending diphthongs using four. See also Romanian phonology.

falling

/aj/ as in mai

/aw/ as in dau

/ej/ as in lei

/ew/ as in leu

/ij/ as in mii (no vocalic glide, but still a diphthong)

/iw/ as in fiu

/oj/ as in goi

/ow/ as in nou

/uj/ as in pui

/əj/ as in răi

/əw/ as in rău

/ɨj/ as in câine

/ɨw/ as in râu

rising

/ea/ as in stea

/eo/ as in George

/ja/ as in iapă

/je/ as in fier

/jo/ as in chior

/ju/ as in iubit

/oa/ as in oameni

/wa/ as in ziua

/wə/ as in două

Spanish

Spanish has six falling diphthongs and eight rising diphthongs. In addition, during fast speech, sequences of vowels in hiatus become diphthongs wherein one becomes non-syllabic (unless they're the same vowel, in which case they fuse together) as in poeta [ˈpo̯eta] ('poet') and maestro [ˈmae̯stɾo] ('teacher'). The phonemic diphthongs are:

falling

/ei/ as in rey ('king')

/ai/ as in aire ('air')

/oi/ as in hoy ('today')

/eu/ as in neutro ('neutral')

/au/ as in pausa ('break')

/ou/ as in bou ('seine fishing')

rising

/je/ as in tierra ('earth')

/ja/ as in hacia ('towards')

/jo/ as in radio ('radio')

/ju/ as in viuda ('widow')

/wi/ as in fuimos ('we went')

/we/ as in fuego ('fire')

/wa/ as in cuadro ('picture')

/wo/ as in cuota ('quota')

Thai

In addition to combinations of vowel nuclei with /j/ or /w/, Thai has three diphthongs:

/ia/

/ɯa/

/ua/

Yiddish

Yiddish has three diphthongs:

/ɛɪ/ as in /plɛɪtə/ פליטה ('refugee' f.)

/aɛ/ as in /naɛn/ נײַן ('nine')

/ɔə/ as in /ɔəfn̩/ אופֿן ('way') Diphthongs may reach a higher target position (towards /i/) in situations of coarticulatory phenomena or when words with such vowels are being emphasized.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Falling Diphthongs'.

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