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In phonetics, a diphthong, Template:PronEng or /ˈdɪp.θɒŋ/, (also gliding vowel) (from Greek δίφθογγος, "diphthongos", literally "two sounds" or "two tones") is a contour vowel—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow. This contrasts with "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, where the tongue is held still, as in the English word papa.

Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single vowel sounds (phonemes).

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pure vowels are transcribed with one letter, as in English "sum" . Diphthongs are transcribed with two letters, as in English "eye" or "same" . The two vowel symbols are chosen to represent the beginning and ending positions of the tongue, though this can be only approximate. The diacritic <  ̯> is placed under the less prominent component to show that it is part of a diphthong rather than a separate vowel, though it is sometimes left off in languages such as English, where there is not likely to be any confusion. (That is, in precise transcription, represents two vowels in hiatus, as found for example in Hawaiian and in the English word "naïve". It would not be a diphthong, for instance, in the English word, "knives").

Types of diphthong

Falling (or descending) diphthongs start with a vowel quality of higher prominence (higher pitch or louder) and end in a semivowel with less prominence, like in "eye", while rising (or ascending) diphthongs begin with a less prominent semivowel and end with a more prominent full vowel, like in "yard". The less prominent component in the diphthong may also be transcribed as an approximant, thus in "eye" and in "yard". However, when the diphthong is analysed as a single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed with vowel letters (/aɪ̯/, /ɪ̯a/). Note also that semivowels and approximants are not equivalent in all treatments, and in the English and Italian languages, among others, many phoneticians do not consider rising combinations to be diphthongs, but rather sequences of approximant and vowel. There are many languages (such as Romanian) that contrast one or more rising diphthongs with similar sequences of a glide and a vowel in their phonetic inventory.

In closing diphthongs, the second element is more close than the first (e.g. ); in opening diphthongs, more open (e.g. ). 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 /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ are true falling diphthongs, since they begin louder and with higher pitch and fall in prominence during the diphthong.

A centering diphthong is one that begins with a more peripheral vowel and ends with a more central one, such as , , and in Received Pronunciation or and in Irish. Many centering diphthongs are also opening diphthongs (, ).

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.

While there are a number of similarities, diphthongs are not the same as a combination of a vowel and a semivowel or glide. Most importantly, diphthongs are contained in the syllable nucleus while a semivowel or glide is restricted to the syllable boundaries (either the onset or the coda). This often manifests itself phonetically by a greater degree of constriction. The English word yes, for example, consists of a palatal glide followed by a monophthong rather than a rising diphthong.

Diphthongs in various languages

Catalan

Catalan possesses a number of phonetic diphthongs, all of which begin or end in or . They include:

In addition to these, Catalan also possesses two sets of diphthongs in variation; varies with (as in afluixar 'to loosen') and with .

There are also certain instances of compensatory diphthongization in the Majorcan dialect so that /ˈtroncs/ ('logs') (in addition to deleting the palatal plosive) develops a compensating palatal glide and surfaces as (and contrasts with the unpluralized ). Diphthongization compensates for the loss of the palatal stop (part of Catalan's segment loss compensation). There are other cases where diphthongization compensates for the loss of point of articulation features (property loss compensation) as in ('year') vs ('years').

The dialectal distribution of compensatory diphthongization is almost entirely dependent on the dorsal plosive (whether it is velar or palatal) and the extent of consonant assimilation (whether or not it's extended to palatals).

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 are pronounced with /j/ between the vowels .

Dutch

1. , , and are normally pronounced as closing diphthongs except before in the same word, in which case they are centering diphthongs: , , and . In many dialects, they are monophthongized

The dialect of Hamont (in Limburg) has five centring diphthongs and contrasts long and short forms of , , , and .

English

All English diphthongs are falling, apart from /juː/, which can be analyzed as .

1. Canadian English exhibits allophony of /aʊ̯/ and /aɪ̯/ called Canadian raising. GA and RP have raising to a lesser extent in /aɪ̯/.
2. In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to and respectively. Australian English speakers more readily monophthongize the former.
3. In Rhotic dialects, words like pair, poor, and peer can be analyzed as diphthongs, although other descriptions analyze them as vowels with in the coda.
4. The erstwhile monophthongs /iː/ and /uː/ are diphthongized in many dialects. In many cases they might be better transcribed as and , where the non-syllabic element is understood to be closer than the syllabic element. They are sometimes transcribed /uw/ and /ij/.

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 (e.g. /uo/), which are not very common crosslinguistically compared to centering diphthongs (e.g. /uə/ in English).

closing

• as in laiva (ship)
• as in keinu (swing)
• as in poika (boy)
• as in äiti (mother)
• as in öisin (at night)
• as in lauha (mild)
• as in leuto (mild)
• as in koulu (school)
• as in leyhyä (to waft)
• as in täysi (full)
• as in löytää (to find)

close

• as in uida (to swim)
• as in lyijy (lead)
• as in viulu (violin)
• as in siistiytyä (to clean up)

opening

• as in kieli (tongue)
• as in suo (bog)
• as in yö (night)

French

Some diphthongs in French:

• /wa/ as in roi "king"
• /wi/ as in oui "yes"
• /wɛ̃/ as in groin "muzzle"
• /ɥi/ as in huit "eight"
• /jɛ̃/ as in lien "bond"
• /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"

While /wa/, /wɛ̃/, and /ɥi/ may be considered diphthongs (that is, fully contained in the syllable nucleus), other sequences of a glide and vowel are considered part of a glide formation process that turns a high vowel into a glide (and part of the syllable onset) when followed by another vowel.

German

Diphthongs in German:

• as in Reich 'empire'
• as in Maus 'mouse'
• as in neu 'new'
• as in sehr 'very'
• as in dir 'you (dative)'
• as in Bor 'boron (element)'
• as in Öhr 'eye (hole in a needle)'
• as in nur 'only'
• as in Tür 'door'

Some diphthongs in Bernese, a Swiss German dialect:

• as in Bier 'beer'
• as in Fuß 'feet'
• as in Schue 'shoes'
• as in Stou 'holdup'
• as in Stau 'stable'
• as in Staau 'steel'
• as in Wäut 'world'
• as in wääut 'elects'
• 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 is like the diphthong or . Note, that in other positions and native words (the above examples are loan words) even the abovementioned speakers realise <au> with a hiatus, that is as two syllables in words like kalauz /ˈkɒ.lɒ.uz/. On the other hand some phoneticians argue, that -aj, -ej, -éj etc. (e.g. in haj 'hair', fej 'head') in Hungarian are actually diphthongs /ɒɪ̯/, /ɛɪ̯/, etc. However this view is not 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 *).

Note, that many Hungarian dialects have diphthongs in place of Standard Hungarian long vowels, such as for /ő/, for /ó/ (northeastern dialect), or 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"

Irish

All Irish diphthongs are falling.

• , spelled aigh, aidh, agh, adh, eagh, eadh, eigh, or eidh
• , spelled abh, amh, eabh, or eamh
• , spelled ia, iai
• , spelled ua, uai

Italian

In standard Italian, only falling diphthongs are considered to be true diphthongs. Rising diphthongs are considered to be sequences of approximant and vowel.

falling

• as in dei (preposition)
• as in direi
• as in avrai
• as in poi
• as in voi
• as in Europa
• as in feudo
• as in pausa

rising

• as in ateniese
• as in piede
• as in piano
• as in piove
• as in fiore
• as in più
• as in qui
• as in quello
• as in guerra
• as in guado
• as in nuoto
• as in liquore

Other combinations, such as , , , are generally considered hiatus by grammarians; however phonetically they are often true diphthongs in poetry and common speech.

Maltese

Maltese has seven falling diphthongs.

• ej or għi
• aj or għi
• oj
• iw
• ew
• aw or għu
• ow or għu

Mandarin Chinese

Rising diphthongs in Mandarin are usually regarded as a combination of a medial glide (i, u, or ü) and a final segment, while falling diphthongs are seen as one final segment. Tone marker is always placed on the vowel with more prominence.

rising

• ia/ya:
  • , as in jiā (家, home), yā (鴨, duck)
  • , as in jiǎn (剪, to cut), yǎn (眼, eye)
  • , as in xiǎng (想, to think), yǎng (癢, itchy)
• ie/ye: , as in xiè (謝, to thank), yè (葉, leaf)
• yo: , as in yō (唷, an interjection)
• iong/yong: , as in xiōng (兇, menacing), yǒng (永, forever)
• ua/wa:
  • , as in guā (瓜, melon), wā (挖, to dig), guǎn (管, tube), uǎn (碗, bowl)
  • , as in zhuāng (裝, to fill), wàng (忘, to forget)
• wen: , as in wèn (問, to ask)
• weng: , as in wēng (翁, old man)
• uo/wo: , as in huǒ (火, fire), wǒ (我, I)
• üan/yuan: , as in xüǎn (選, to choose), yuǎn (遠, far)
• üe/yue: , as in xüé (學, to learn), yuè (越, to cross)

falling

• ai: , as in ài (愛, love)
• ei: , as in lèi (累, tired)
• ao: , as in dào (道, way)
• ou: , as in dòu (豆, bean)

only occurs in isolation

always followed by nasal

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 is not indicated in spelling.

Norwegian

There are five diphthongs in Norwegian:

• as in nei, "no"
• as in øy, "island"
• as in sau, "sheep"
• as in hai, "shark"
• as in joik, "Sami song"

An additional diphthong, , only occurs 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. A onglide after /k/ or /g/ as in quando ('when') or ('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 e.g., férias ~ .

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

Romanian

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

falling

• as in mii (no vocalic glide, but still a diphthong)
• as in lei
• as in mai
• as in goi
• as in pui
• as in răi
• as in câine
• as in fiu
• as in leu
• as in dau
• as in nou
• as in rău
• as in râu

rising

• as in fier
• as in iapă
• as in stea
• as in oameni
• as in ziua
• as in chior
• as in George
• as in iubit
• 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 are the same vowel, in which case they fuse together) as in poeta ('poet') and maestro ('teacher'). The phonemic diphthongs are:

falling

• /ei̯/ as in rey ('king')
• /ai̯/ as in aire ('air')
• /oi̯/ as in hoy ('today')
• /eu̯/ as in neutro ('neutral')
• /au̯/ as in pausa ('break')
• /ou̯/ 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 vowel nuclei following /j/ and /w/, Thai has three diphthongs:

Yiddish

Yiddish has three diphthongs:

• as in פּליטה ('refugee' f.)
• as in נײַן ('nine')
• as in 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.

Zulu

Dipthongs between true vowels never occur in Zulu, with each syllable having only one vowel sound, eg. . However, Zulu has two semi-vowels which form dipthongs with true vowels, the IPA letters j and w.

• as in ngiyakubeka (I am placing it)
• as in ngiwa (I fall/I am falling)

See also

• Hiatus
• List of phonetics topics
• Semivowel
• Triphthong
• Vowel cluster

References

1. Roach (2004:240)
2. Chitoran (2001:11)
3. Borg & Azzopardi-Alexander (1997:299)
4. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:92)
5. Barbosa & Albano (2004:230)
6. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:92)
7. Barbosa & Albano (2004:230)
8. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:256)
9. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993:25)
10. Kleine (2003:263)

Bibliography

• Barbosa, Plínio A.; Albano, Eleonora C. (2004), "Brazilian Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 227–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001756
• Borg, Albert J.; Azzopardi-Alexander, Marie (1997), Maltese, Routledge, ISBN 0415022436
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
• Chitoran, Ioana (2001), The Phonology of Romanian: A Constraint-based Approach, Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3110167662
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223
• Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X
• Kaye, Jonathan; Lowenstamm, Jean (1984), "De la syllabicité", in François Dell, François; Hirst, Daniel; Vergnaud, Jean-Roger (eds.), La forme sonore du langage (PDF), Paris: Hermann, pp. 123–159
• Kleine, Ane (2003), "Standard Yiddish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 261–265, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001385
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Mascaró, Joan (1976), Catalan Phonology and the Phonological Cycle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology {{citation}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
• Roach, Peter (2004), "British English: Received Pronunciation", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768
• Padgett, Jaye (2007), "Glides, Vowels, and Features", Lingua, 118 (12): 1937–1955
• Tingsabadh, M.R. Kalaya; Abramson, Arthur (1993), "Thai", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (1): 24–28, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004746
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
• Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 27 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
• Verhoeven, Jo; Van Bael, C. (2002), "Akoestische kenmerken van de Nederlandse klinkers in drie Vlaamse regio's", Taal en Tongval, 54: 1–23

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