|
|
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (September 2007) |
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) |
In phonetics, a diphthong, pronounced /ˈdɪf.θɔ:ŋ/, (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.[1]
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).[2]
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pure vowels are transcribed with one letter, as in English "sum" [sʌm]. Diphthongs are transcribed with two letters, as in English "eye" [aɪ̯] or "same" [seɪ̯m]. 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, [ai] represents two vowels in hiatus, as found for example in Hawaiian and Japanese, or in the English word "naïve", not a diphthong as in English "knives").
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 [aɪ̯] in "eye", while rising (or ascending) diphthongs begin with a less prominent semivowel and end with a more prominent full vowel, like [ɪ̯a] in "yard". The less prominent component in the diphthong may also be transcribed as an approximant, thus [aj] in "eye" and [ja] 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.[3]
In closing diphthongs, the second element is more close than the first (e.g. [ai]); in opening diphthongs, more open (e.g. [ia]). Closing diphthongs tend to be falling ([ai̯]), and opening diphthongs are generally rising ([i̯a]), 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 [ɪə̯], [ɛə̯], and [ʊə̯ in Received Pronunciation or [iə̯] and [uə̯] in Irish. Many centering diphthongs are also opening diphthongs ([iə̯], [uə̯]).
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.
Catalan possesses a number of phonetic diphthongs, all of which begin or end in [j] or [w]. They include:[4]
| [ej] | rei | 'king' | [ɛw] | peu | 'foot' |
| [uj] | avui | 'today' | [ow] | pou | 'well' |
| [ja] | iaia | 'grandma' | [wa] | quatre | 'four' |
| [jɛ] | veiem | 'we see' | [wə] | aigua | 'water' |
In addition to these, Catalan also possesses two sets of diphthongs in variation; [wi] varies with [uj] (as in afluixar [aflujˈɕa~aflwiˈɕa] 'to loosen') and [iw] with [ju].[5]
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 [ˈtrojns] (and contrasts with the unpluralized [ˈtronʲc]). 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 [ˈaɲ] ('year') vs [ˈajns] ('years').[6]
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).[7]
Croatian dialects also have uo, as in kuonj, ruod, uon[9] while, in Standard Croatian, these words are konj, rod, on)
There are three diphthongs in Czech:
Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are not regarded as diphthongs, they are pronounced with /j/ between the vowels [ɪja, ɪjɛ, ɪjɪ, ɪjo, ɪju].
| Netherlandic[10] | Belgian[11] | |
|---|---|---|
| zeis | [ɛɪ̯] | |
| ui | [œʏ̯] | |
| zout | [ʌʊ̯] | [ɔʊ̯] |
| beet1 | [eɪ̯] | [eː] |
| neus1 | [øʏ̯] | [øː] |
| boot1 | [oʊ̯] | [oː] |
The dialect of Hamont (in Limburg) has five centring diphthongs and contrasts long and short forms of [ɛɪ̯], [œʏ̯], [ɔʊ̯], and [ɑʊ̯].[13]
All English diphthongs are falling.
| RP (British) | Australian | American | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GA | Canadian | |||
| low | [əʊ̯] | [əʉ̯] | [oʊ̯] | |
| loud | [aʊ̯] | [æɔ̯] | [aʊ̯] | [aʊ̯] |
| lout | [əʊ̯]1 | |||
| lied | [aɪ̯] | [ɑe̯] | [aɪ̯] | [aɪ̯] |
| light | [əɪ̯]1 | |||
| lane | [eɪ̯] | [æɪ] | [eɪ̯] | |
| loin | [ɔɪ̯] | [oɪ] | [ɔɪ̯] | |
| leer | [ɪə̯] | [ɪə̯] | [ɪɚ̯]3 | |
| lair | [ɛə̯]2 | [eː]2 | [ɛɚ]3 | |
| lure | [ʊə̯]2 | [ʊə̯] | [ʊɚ̯]3 | |
Diphthongs in Faroese are:
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).
Some diphthongs in French:
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.[15]
Diphthongs in German:
Some diphthongs in Bernese, a Swiss German dialect:
The general consensus is that standard Hungarian has no diphthongs. However linguists[who?] 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 [ɒu̯] or [ɒʊ̯]. 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[who?] 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 *[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).
Diphthongs in Icelandic are the following:
Combinations of j and a vowel are the following:
All Irish diphthongs are falling.
In standard Italian, only falling diphthongs are considered to be true diphthongs.
Other combinations, such as [ui], [iu], [ii], are generally considered hiatus by grammarians; however phonetically they are often true diphthongs in poetry and common speech.
Diphthongs in Latvian
Maltese has seven falling diphthongs.[16]
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.
1 only occurs in isolation
2 always followed by nasal
The diphthong system in Northern Sami varies considerably from one dialect to another. The Western Finnmark dialects distinguish four different qualities of opening diphthongs:
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.
There are five diphthongs in Norwegian:
An additional diphthong, [ʉ̫ʏ̯], only occurs in the word hui in the expression i hui og hast "in great haste".
European Portuguese has 14 phonemic diphthongs (10 oral and 4 nasal),[17] 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 [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;[18] in more formal speech, these are realized as hiatus e.g., férias [ˈfɛ.ɾi.ɐʃ] ~ [ˈfɛ.ɾjɐʃ].[citation needed]
| EP[19] | BP | |
|---|---|---|
| anéis | [ɛɪ̯] | |
| sai | [aɪ̯] | |
| sei | [ɐɪ̯] | [eɪ̯] |
| mói | [ɔɪ̯] | |
| moita | [oɪ̯] | |
| anuis | [uɪ̯] | |
| viu | [iu̯] | |
| meu | [eu̯] | |
| véu | [ɛu̯] | |
| mau | [au̯] | |
| cem | [ɐ̃ɪ̯] | [ẽɪ̯] |
| mãe | [ɐ̃ɪ̯] | |
| anões | [õɪ̯] | |
| muita | [ũɪ̯] | |
| mão | [ɐ̃u̯] | |
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/ in words like arroz [aʁoɪ̯s] ('rice') and mas [maɪ̯s] ('but').[20]
Romanian builds its descending diphthongs using two semivowels and its ascending diphthongs using four.
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 [ˈpo̯eta] ('poet') and maestro [ˈmae̯stɾo] ('teacher'). The phonemic diphthongs are:[21]
In addition to vowel nuclei following /j/ and /w/, Thai has three diphthongs:[22]
Yiddish has three diphthongs:[23]
Diphthongs may reach a higher target position (towards /i/) in situations of coarticulatory phenomena or when words with such vowels are being emphasized.