DIPHTHONGS

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DIPHTHONGS

• English Phonetics and Phonology
• Lesson 5A

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2 AVVISI

• Nostra lezone di Lunedi 10-12
• spostata nellaula T12A
• Gruppo 1C (avanzato)
• corso First Certificate
• Martedi 16-18
• T34
• McGowan

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DIPHTHONGS

fear go house I pain pear tour toy
here know how my play there pour voice
beer home down either cave where choice
hear bone loud eye reign air
clear sew sigh made heir
dear crow thai maid wear
Dont tie obey
foam pay
foe
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TRIPHTHONGS
/ei/ schwa /ai / schwa /au/ schwa /oi/ schwa schwa /u/ schwa
player fire hour royal lower
liar power
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Minimal pairs

• Beware of heard a dreadful word
• that looks like beard and sounds
• like bird

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While the position of the tongue is more or less
stable for a pure vowel
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a diphthong is characterised by a graceful
movement from one point to another, for this
reason they are also sometimes known as glides.
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This is also visible on a spectrogram this is
the pure vowel /a/
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and this is the diphthong /ai/. Notice how the
formants (the dark bands) seperate towards the
end.
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English diphthongs may cause Italian speakers
difficulty for two main reasons

• Italian has four diphthongs (I think!) while
  English has eight. All the Italian diphthongs
  have equivalents in English which are not the
  same but which are reasonably similar
• Nowhere is the English spelling system more
  bizarre than in its representation of diphthongs

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If one has a clear idea of where pure vowels are
articulated on the quadrilateral then
interpreting the diphthong symbols is not
difficult.
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Technically, English diphthongs are divided into
two groups

• Closing diphthongs which tend to move from an
  open to a close position, these roughly
  correspond to Italian sounds
• Centring diphthongs which tend towards a
  central position

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First we will look at the closing group
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the pay, made, maid, reign, obey,
sound
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Then we have the I, my, tie, sigh,
either, eye, Thai, sound
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Then there is boy, choice
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Then down, loud
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To end the closing group, the most common
diphthong in English, that of no,
know,bone, foam, sew, though, dont,
foe, crow
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To start with the centring group, we have the
most common, that of clear, deer, here,
wier
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Then air, where, wear, care, heir
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Finally, there is a diphthong which is quite rare
- tour, poor
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Pronunciation change

• Poor used to be pronounced like puer in Latin
  (and still is in some regions, e.g. Scotland).
• Now it tends to be pronounced as a long vowel
  (like door and more)
• Is there a difference between the pronunciation
  of poor and paw (zampa) ?

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Finally

• Diphthongs are the element in a language which
  are most liable to change. The majority of the
  characteristics of a given accent are usually to
  be found in this area, so understanding of the
  underlying mechanics is vital if one wants to
  understand accents and accent change.