Diphthong

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Diphthong

In phonetics

Phonetics

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds , and the processes of their physiological production, auditory reception, and neurophysiological perception....
, a diphthong, or , (also gliding vowel) (from Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
, "diphthongos", literally "two sounds" or "two tones") is a contour

Contour (linguistics)

In phonetics, contour describes speech sounds which behave as single segment s, but which make an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another....
vowel

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement

Glissando

A glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized Musical terminology derived from the French glisser, to glide....
of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow. This contrasts with "pure" vowels, or monophthong
Monophthong

A monophthong is a "pure" vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not semivowel towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong....
s, where the tongue is held still, as in the English word papa.

Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech.

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In phonetics

Phonetics

Ancient Greek

Contour (linguistics)

In phonetics, contour describes speech sounds which behave as single segment s, but which make an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another....
vowel

Vowel

Glissando

Phoneme

In human language, a phoneme is the smallest posited linguistically distinctive unit of sound. Phonemes carry no semantic content themselves. In theoretical terms, phonemes are not the physical segment s themselves, but cognitive abstractions or categorizations of them....
s).

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

Diacritic

A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
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

Hiatus (linguistics)

Hiatus in linguistics is the separate pronunciation of two adjacent vowels, sometimes with an intervening glottal stop. In poetic metre , hiatus can also refer to the failure of two vowels straddling a word boundary to coalesce, for example by elision of the first vowel....
, as found for example in Hawaiian

Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language is an Austronesian languages that takes its name from Hawaii , the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed....
and Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
, or in the English word "naïve", not a diphthong as in English "knives").

Types of diphthongs

Falling (or descending) diphthongs start with a vowel quality of higher prominence (higher pitch or louder) and end in a semivowel

Semivowel

Semivowels, also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels, are vowels that form diphthongs with full syllable vowels. That is, they are vowel-like sounds that do not form the syllable nucleus of a syllable or mora ; they are not the most prominence part of the syllable....
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 (). 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

Close vowel

A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant....
than the first (e.g. ); in opening diphthongs, more open

Open vowel

An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth....
(e.g. ). Closing diphthongs tend to be falling , and opening diphthongs are generally rising , because open vowels are more sonorous

Sonority

Sonority may refer to:*sound*sonority hierarchy, a ranking of speech sounds by amplitude*In music theory, a chord, particularly when speaking of non-traditional harmonies...
and therefore tend to be more prominent. However, exceptions to this rule are not rare in the world's languages. In Finnish

Finnish phonology

This article deals with the sound patterns of the Finnish language. The Finnish grammar and the way in which Spoken Finnish are dealt with in separate articles....
, for instance, the opening diphthongs and 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

Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation is a form of pronunciation of the English language which has long been perceived as uniquely prestigious amongst British Accent ....
or and in Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....
. 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

Northern Sami

Northern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland as well as northwestern parts of Russia....
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

Catalan

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

rei	'king'	peu	'foot'
avui	'today'	pou	'well'
iaia	'grandma'	quatre	'four'
veiem	'we see'	aigua	'water'

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 ('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

Czech phonology

For assistance in making phonetic transcriptions of Czech for Wikipedia articles, see WP:IPA for CzechThis article discusses the phonology system of the Czech language...
:

as in auto (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)
as in euro (in words of foreign origin only)
as in koule

Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are not regarded as diphthongs, they are pronounced with between the vowels .

Dutch

Diphthongs of Dutch
Dutch phonology

Dutch is a Germanic language and as such has a similar phonology to other Germanic languages . The Dutch as spoken in Haarlem is popularly said to be closest to northern ?Standard? Dutch, *not* the Amsterdam dialect....
	Netherlandic	Belgian
zeis
ui
zout
beet
neus
boot

, , 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 monophthong
Monophthong

A monophthong is a "pure" vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not semivowel towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong....
ized

The dialect of Hamont (in Limburg

Limburg (Belgium)

Limburg is the easternmost province of Flanders , and is located west of the Maas River river. It borders on the Netherlands and the Belgian provinces of Li?ge , Flemish Brabant and Antwerp ....
) has five centring diphthongs and contrasts long and short forms of , , , and .

English

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

Standard English diphthongs
	American
	GA General American General American is an accent of American English. Within American English, General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American English, several U.S....	Canadian Canadian English Canadian English is the Variety of English language used in Canada. More than 26 million Canadians have some knowledge of English . Approximately 17 million speak English as their native language....
low
loud
lout
lied
light
lane
loin
loon
lean
leer
lair
lure

Canadian English exhibits allophony
Allophone

In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds that belong to the same phoneme. A phoneme is an abstract unit of speech sound that can distinguish words: That is, changing a phoneme in a word can produce another word....
of and called Canadian raising
Canadian raising

Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which diphthongs are "raised" before phonation consonants ....
. GA and RP have raising to a lesser extent in .
In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to and respectively. Australian English speakers more readily monophthongize the former.
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.
The erstwhile monophthongs and 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 and .

Faroese

Diphthongs in Faroese

Faroese language

Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese people in Denmark....
are:

as in bein (can also be short)
as in havn
as in har, mær
as in hey
as in nevnd
as in nøvn
as in hús
as in mín, bý, ið (can also be short)
as in ráð
as in hoyra (can also be short)
as in sól, ovn

Finnish

All Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....
diphthongs are falling. Notably, Finnish has true opening diphthongs (e.g. /uo/), which are not very common crosslinguistically compared to centering diphthongs (e.g. /u?/ 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)

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

French phonology

For assistance in making IPA transcriptions of French for Wikipedia articles, see WP:IPA for FrenchThis article mainly discusses the phonology system of standard language French language based on the Metropolitan French....
:

as in roi "king"
as in oui "yes"
as in groin "muzzle"
as in huit "eight"
as in lien "bond"
as in Ariège

as in travail "work" as in Marseille as in feuille "leaf" as in grenouille "frog" as in vieux "old"

While , , and 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

German phonology

This article is about the phonology of the German language based on the Standard German. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants ....
:

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

Bernese German

Bernese German is the dialect of High Alemannic German spoken in the Swiss plateau part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions....
, a Swiss German

Swiss German

Swiss German is any of the Alemannic Germans spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are called Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg which are closely associated to Switzerland's....
dialect:

as in Bier 'beer'
as in Füess '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

Hungarian phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Hungarian language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics. Hungarian is notable for its process of vowel harmony....
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 with a hiatus

Hiatus

Hiatus may refer to:* A period of time where one is on a break*A break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc. *Hiatus , a natural fissure in a structure...
, that is as two syllables in words like kalauz . On the other hand some phoneticians argue, that -aj, -ej, -éj etc. (e.g. in haj 'hair', fej 'head') in Hungarian are actually diphthongs , , etc. However this view is not shared by many, the general position being that this is a vowel–consonant combination , , 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.)' rather than hypothetical *).

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

Icelandic

Diphthongs in Icelandic

Icelandic phonology

Icelandic phonology is the study of the phonology of the Icelandic language. Unlike many languages, Icelandic has only very minor dialectal differences in sounds, due to the relatively small number of speakers and the concentration of these speakers in mostly one area....
are the following:

as in átta, "eight"
as in nóg, "enough"
as in auga, "eye"
as in hæ, "hi"
as in þeir, "they"

Combinations of j and a vowel are the following:

as in jata, "manger"
as in já, "yes"
as in joð, "iodine," "jay," "yod" (only in a handful of words of foreign origin)
as in jól, "Christmas"
as in jötunn, "giant"
as in jæja, "oh well"

Irish

All Irish

Irish phonology

File:Gaeltachtai le hainmneacha.svgThe phonology of the Irish language varies from Irish language#Dialects; there is no standard language of the language....
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

Italian phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Italian language. It deals with the phonology and phonetics of Standard Italian as well as with geographical variants....
, 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

Hiatus (linguistics)

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
and common speech.

Latvian

Diphthongs in Latvian

Latvian language

Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. Alternative names include Lettish and Lettisch. There are about 1.5 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad....

falling

as in laiva
as in beigas
as in koika
as in puika

as in tauva
as in tev
as in pliukš
as in souls
as in myusu (dial.)

as in iela
as in ruoka

Maltese

Maltese language

Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official Languages of Malta alongside English language,while also serving as an Languages of the European Union European Union, the only Semitic languages so distinguished....
has seven falling diphthongs.

ej or ghi
aj or ghi
oj
iw
ew
aw or ghu
ow or ghu

Mandarin Chinese

Rising diphthongs in Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, is the official modern Spoken Chinese used in People's Republic of China and Republic of China, and is one of the four official languages of Languages of Singapore....
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 jia (?, home), ya (?, duck)
, as in jian (?, to cut), yan (?, eye)
, as in xiang (?, to think), yang (?, itchy)

ie/ye: , as in xiè (?, to thank), yè (?, leaf)
yo: , as in yo (?, an interjection) ¹
iong/yong: , as in xiong (?, menacing), yong (?, forever)
ua/wa:

, as in gua (?, melon), wa (?, to dig), guan (?, tube), uan (?, bowl)
, as in zhuang (?, to fill), wàng (?, to forget)

wen: , as in wèn (?, to ask) ¹²
weng: , as in weng (?, old man) ¹²
uo/wo: , as in huo (?, fire), wo (?, I)
üan/yuan: , as in xüan (?, to choose), yuan (?, far) ²
üe/yue: , as in xüé (?, to learn), yuè (?, to cross)

falling

ai: , as in ài (?, love)
ei: , as in lèi (?, tired)
ao: , as in dào (?, way)
ou: , as in dòu (?, bean)

¹ only occurs in isolation

² always followed by nasal

Northern Sami

The diphthong system in Northern Sami

Northern Sami

Northern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland as well as northwestern parts of Russia....
varies considerably from one dialect to another. The Western Finnmark dialects distinguish four different qualities of opening diphthongs:

as in leat "to be"
as in giella "language"
as in boahtit "to come"
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

Norwegian phonology

The sound system of Norwegian language is similar to that of Swedish language. There is considerable variation among the dialects, but the variant generally taught to foreign students is Standard ?stnorsk ....
:

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

European Portuguese refers to the variety of Portuguese language spoken in continental Portugal, as well in the Azores and Madeira islands. The word ?European? was chosen to avoid the clash of ?Portuguese 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

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by virtually all the 189 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
has roughly the same amount, although the two dialects have slightly different pronunciations. A onglide after or as in quando ('when') or ('guard') may also form rising diphthongs and triphthong

Triphthong

In phonetics, a triphthong is a syllable vowel combination involving a glissando of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third....
s. 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

Hiatus (linguistics)

Diphthongs of Portuguese
	EP European Portuguese European Portuguese refers to the variety of Portuguese language spoken in continental Portugal, as well in the Azores and Madeira islands. The word ?European? was chosen to avoid the clash of ?Portuguese Portuguese?....	BP Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by virtually all the 189 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
anéis
sai
sei
mói
moita
anuis
viu
meu
véu
mau
cem
mãe
anões
muita
mão

In addition, phonetic diphthongs are formed in Brazilian Portuguese by the vocalization

L-vocalization

In linguistics, l-vocalization is a process by which an sound is replaced by a vowel or semivowel sound. This happens most often to ....
of in the syllable coda with words like sol ('sun') and sul ('south') as well as by yodization of vowels preceding in words like arroz ('rice') and mas ('but').

Romanian

Romanian phonology

This article discusses the phonology of the Romanian language. For other details on this language the reader is referred to that article.The phoneme inventory of Romanian consists of seven vowels, two or four semivowels, and twenty consonants....
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 rai
as in câine
as in fiu
as in leu
as in dau
as in nou
as in rau
as in râu

rising

as in fier
as in iapa
as in stea
as in oameni
as in ziua
as in chior
as in George
as in iubit
as in doua

Spanish

Spanish phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Spanish language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants ....
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

as in rey ('king')
as in aire ('air')
as in hoy ('today')
as in neutro ('neutral')
as in pausa ('break')
as in bou ('seine fishing')

rising

as in tierra ('earth')
as in hacia ('towards')
as in radio ('radio')
as in viuda ('widow')
as in fuimos ('we went')
as in fuego ('fire')
as in cuadro ('picture')
as in cuota ('quota')

Thai

In addition to vowel nuclei following and , Thai has three diphthongs:*

Yiddish

Yiddish phonology

There is significant Phonology variation among the various dialects of the Yiddish language. The description that follows is of a modern Standard Yiddish that was devised during the early 20th century and is frequently encountered in pedagogical contexts....
has three diphthongs:

as in ?????? ('refugee' f.)
as in ???? ('nine')
as in ????? ('way')

Diphthongs may reach a higher target position (towards ) in situations of coarticulatory phenomena or when words with such vowels are being emphasized.

Diphthong

Types of diphthongs

Diphthongs in various languages

Catalan

Croatian

Czech

Dutch

English

Faroese

Finnish

French

German

Hungarian

Icelandic

Irish

Italian

Latvian

Maltese

Mandarin Chinese

Northern Sami

Norwegian

Portuguese

Romanian

Spanish

Thai

Yiddish

See also

Bibliography