Diphthong

From Free net encyclopedia

In phonetics, a diphthong (Greek δίφθογγος, "diphthongos", literally "with two sounds") is a vowel combination in a single syllable involving a quick but smooth movement 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 International Phonetic Alphabet by one symbol: English "sum" as Template:IPA, for example. Diphthongs are represented by two symbols, for example English "same" as Template:IPA, where the two vowel symbols are intended to represent approximately the beginning and ending tongue positions.

Falling diphthongs start with a higher vowel, e.g., Template:IPA, while rising diphthongs end with a higher vowel, e.g., Template:IPA. In closing diphthongs, the second element is closer than the first; in opening diphthongs, more opened. A centering diphthong is one that begins with a more peripheral vowel and ends with a more central one, such as Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA in Received Pronunciation or Template:IPA and Template:IPA in Irish.

Some languages contrast short and long diphthongs, the latter usually being described as having a long first element. Until the first few decades of the 20th century, it was generally accepted that Old English had long and short diphthongs, with vowel combinations such as the one in nēah 'near' contrasting with the one in feallan 'to fall.' In 1939, however, Marjorie Daunt suggested that short diphthongs in Old English were in fact merely allophonic variants recorded by Irish scribes, to whom the sequence was audible, and that they were not phonemically significant to native speakers of Anglo-Saxon. The topic has been debated by historical linguists ever since.

The unstressed elements of the diphthongs may be transcribed as semivowels. However, when the whole diphthong is analysed as being one single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed as vowels.

Contents

[edit]

English

Diphthongs in the General American accent of English:

Diphthongs in the Received Pronunciation of British English:

The latter three diphthongs also occur in the Boston accent.

(see International Phonetic Alphabet for English for more)

Diphthongs in Australian English:

[edit]

Italian

Diphthongs in standard Italian:

rising diphthongs
falling diphthongs

Other combinations (including [ui], [iu], [ii]) are generally considered hiatuses by grammarians; however they are often phonetically true diphthongs, such as in poetry and common speech. Note also that falling diphthongs are considered not true diphthongs by many phoneticians, but sequences of a semivowel and a vowel.

[edit]

French

Some diphthongs in French:

[edit]

Faroese

Diphthongs in Faroese are:

[edit]

Finnish

Diphthongs in Finnish

[edit]

German

Diphthongs in German:

Some diphthongs in Bernese, a Swiss German dialect:

[edit]

Icelandic

Diphthongs in Icelandic are the following:

[edit]

Portuguese

Vowel combinations in Portuguese are divided into three groups: hiatuses, sequences of two independent vowels, diphthongs, sequences of a vowel and /i, u/, which can appear after or before the vowel, and the rare triphthongs, with semivowel+vowel+semivowel. Just like the vowels, diphthongs are divided into two subgroups: oral diphthongs and nasal diphthongs.

Diphthongs in Portuguese:

oral
nasal
[edit]

Northern Sami

Diphthongs in Northern Sami

[edit]

Romanian

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

Rising:

Falling:

[edit]

Spanish

Diphthongs in Spanish:

rising diphthongs
falling diphthongs
[edit]

See also

ca:Diftong de:Diphthong es:Diptongo eo:Diftongo fr:Diphtongue io:Diftongo id:Diftong it:Dittongo he:דיפתונג nl:Tweeklank ja:二重母音 no:Diftong nn:Diftong pl:Dyftong simple:Diphthong fi:Diftongi sv:Diftong

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Diphthong"