The English Diphthongs

What is "diphthong"?

“Diphthong is a vowel sound in which the tongue changes position to produce the sound of two vowels”. (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

“Diphthong is a single sound produced when two vowels (one dominant in duration and stress, and one reduced in duration and stress), are paired together in a sequence”.  (Linda I. House: Introductory Phonetics and Phonology).

Diphthongs are not included on the IPA charts because they are the result of the pairing two pure vowels.

There are eight diphthongs commonly used in English: /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /əʊ/, /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, and /ʊə/.

Chart of English Diphthongs:

It is important to note that the close combination of the two vowels causes each of the vowels to lose its pure quality. For instance, the /ɪ/ in [aɪ] is quite different from the /ɪ/ in [ɪt].

In phonological patterns, diphthongs are labeled using a single “V” (not “VV”) because they act as one sound.

Although diphthongs are considered as the combination of two vowels, never put “colon” ( : ) when combine and transcribe them in phonetic symbols.

Because diphthongs are composed of vowels, they are also described using the parameters of height, frontness, and rounding.

The parameters are listed using vowel height, frontness, and rounding of the first vowel and then followed by the second vowel.

Thus, to make a sound parameter of /eɪ/ for example, we can describe it as: 

“/eɪ/ is an open-mid, front, unrounded vowel moving to near-close, near-front, unrounded vowel ”.

More Descriptions:

 

The Phonetic Transcriptions of the English Diphthongs in Words: