A diphthong ( ),
Diphthongs contrast with , where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word ah is spoken as a monophthong (), while the word ow is spoken as a diphthong in most varieties (). Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables (e.g. in the English word re-elect) the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong.
Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds ().
The word comes , .
Transcription
In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), monophthongs are transcribed with one symbol, as in English
sun , in which represents a monophthong. Diphthongs are transcribed with two symbols, as in English
high or
cow , in which and represent diphthongs.
Diphthongs may be transcribed with two vowel symbols or with a vowel symbol and a semivowel symbol. In the words above, the less prominent member of the diphthong can be represented with the symbols for the palatal approximant and the labiovelar approximant , with the symbols for the close vowels and , or the symbols for the and :
Some transcriptions are broader or narrower (less precise or more precise phonetically) than others. Transcribing the English diphthongs in high and cow as or is a less precise or broader transcription, since these diphthongs usually end in a vowel sound that is more open than the semivowels or the . Transcribing the diphthongs as is a more precise or narrower transcription, since the English diphthongs usually end in the .
The non-syllabic diacritic, the inverted breve below ,[Used e.g. by The author states that the Afrikaans diphthongs can be transcribed .] or a tie bar, or .[Used e.g. by . The author transcribes the diphthongs as . However, on page 36, he admits that phonetically, are more precise symbols.] The tie bar can be useful when it is not clear which symbol represents the syllable nucleus, or when they have equal weight.[ The authors contrast from from .]
The period is the opposite of the non-syllabic diacritic: it represents a syllable break. If two vowels next to each other belong to two different (hiatus), meaning that they do not form a diphthong, they can be transcribed with two vowel symbols with a period in between. Thus, lower can be transcribed , with a period separating the first syllable, , from the second syllable, .
The non-syllabic diacritic is used only when necessary. It is typically omitted when there is no ambiguity, as in . No words in English have the vowel sequences , so the non-syllabic diacritic is unnecessary.
Types
Falling and rising
Falling (or
descending) diphthongs start with a vowel quality of higher prominence (higher pitch or volume) 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, similar to the in
yard. (Sometimes, however, the terms "falling" and "rising" are used, instead, to refer to
vowel height, i.e. as synonyms of the terms "closing" and "opening".
See below.) 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 symbols (, ). Semivowels and approximants are not equivalent in all treatments, and in the English and Italian languages, among others, many
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
(see
semivowel for examples).
Closing, opening, and centering
In
closing diphthongs, the second element is more
close vowel than the first (e.g. ); in
opening diphthongs, the second element is more
open vowel (e.g. ). Closing diphthongs tend to be falling (), and opening diphthongs are generally rising (),
as open vowels are more
sonorant 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 and are true falling diphthongs, since they begin louder and with higher pitch and fall in prominence during the diphthong.
A third, rare type of diphthong that is neither opening nor closing is height-harmonic diphthongs, with both elements at the same vowel height.
-
beorht "bright"
-
ċeald "cold"
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 language. Many centering diphthongs are also opening diphthongs (, ).
Diphthongs may contrast in how far they open or close. For example, Samoan language contrasts low-to-mid with low-to-high diphthongs:
-
'ai 'probably'
-
'ae 'but'
-
'auro 'gold'
-
ao 'a cloud'
Narrow and wide
Narrow diphthongs are the ones that end with a vowel which on a vowel chart is quite close to the one that begins the diphthong, for example Northern Dutch , and .
Wide diphthongs are the opposite – they require a greater tongue movement, and their offsets are farther away from their starting points on the vowel chart. Examples of wide diphthongs are RP/GA English and .
Length
Languages differ in the length of diphthongs, measured in terms of morae. In languages with phonemically short and long vowels, diphthongs typically behave like long vowels, and are pronounced with a similar length.
In languages with only one phonemic length for pure vowels, however, diphthongs may behave like pure vowels.
For example, in Icelandic, both monophthongs and diphthongs are pronounced long before single consonants and short before most consonant clusters.
Some languages contrast short and long diphthongs. In some languages, such as Old English, these behave like short and long vowels, occupying one and two morae, respectively. 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 longer second element.
Phonology
In some languages, diphthongs are single
, while in others they are analyzed as sequences of two vowels, or of a vowel and a semivowel.
Sound changes
Certain sound changes relate to diphthongs and
.
Vowel breaking or diphthongization is a
vowel shift in which a monophthong becomes a diphthong. Monophthongization or smoothing is a vowel shift in which a diphthong becomes a monophthong.
Difference from semivowels and vowel sequences
While there are a number of similarities, diphthongs are not the same phonologically as a combination of a vowel and an approximant or glide. Most importantly, diphthongs are fully 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,
but the phonetic distinction is not always clear.
The English word
yes, for example, consists of a palatal glide followed by a monophthong rather than a rising diphthong. In addition, the segmental elements must be different in diphthongs and so when it occurs in a language, it does not contrast with . However, it is possible for languages to contrast and .
Diphthongs are also distinct from sequences of simple vowels. The Bunaq language of Timor, for example, distinguishes 'exit' from 'be amused', 'dance' from 'stare at', and 'choice' from 'good'.
Some languages or dialects also articulate the component sounds of a diphthong differently than when those sounds are produced in hiatus. For example, due to Canadian raising, many North American English speakers pronounce with closer vowels than , and, among a subset of those, the diphthong may be similarly raised as compared to .
Examples
Indo-European languages
English
In words coming from
Middle English, most cases of the Modern English diphthongs originate from the Middle English long monophthongs through the Great Vowel Shift, although some cases of originate from the Middle English diphthongs .
|
| +Standard English diphthongs
! rowspan="2" | ! rowspan="2"English
diaphoneme
! rowspan="2" | RP (British English)
! rowspan="2" | Australian
! rowspan="2" | S.W. Irish
! colspan="2" | North American |
|
| | |
| | |
| l out | [Canadian English and some dialects of northern American English exhibit Allophone of and called Canadian raising – in some places they have become separate phonemes. GA has raising to a lesser extent in .] |
| | [In several American dialects such as Southern American English, becomes monophthongal aː except before voiceless consonants.] |
| l ight | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Dutch
The dialect of Hamont (in Limburg) has five centring diphthongs and contrasts long and short forms of , , , and .
Afrikaans
The Afrikaans language has its origin in Dutch but differs in many significant ways, including the use of diphthongs in the place of several non-diphthong Dutch double vowels, or double-vowels being pronounced differently.
Examples include:
-
ee as in leer
-
eu as in deur
-
ui as in buite
| + Diphthong phonemes
! rowspan="2" colspan="2" | Starting point
! colspan="3" | Ending point |
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Falling diphthongs. Their first element may be short or somewhat lengthened .
-
Rising diphthongs . These variants do not seem to appear word-finally. The sequence is commonly realised as or, more often, , with realised as breathy
-
The scholar Daan Wissing argues that is not a phonetically correct transcription and that is more accurate. In his analysis, he found that makes for 65% of the realisations, the other 35% being monophthongal, , and .
-
Most often, has an unrounded offset. For some speakers, the onset is also unrounded. That can cause to merge with , which is considered non-standard.
-
occur mainly in loanwords.
-
Older sources describe as a narrow back diphthong . However, newer sources describe its onset as more front. For example, , states that the onset of is central .
-
In some words which, in English, are pronounced with , the Afrikaans equivalent tends to be pronounced with , rather than . That happens because Afrikaans is more similar to the usual South African realization of English .
| + Example words for diphthongs
! Phoneme
! IPA
! Orthography
! Gloss |
| | | seun | 'son' |
| | | hy | 'he' |
| | | weet | 'to know' |
| | | huis | 'house' |
| | | | 'burlap' |
| | | brood | 'bread' |
| | | koud | 'cold' |
| | | baie | 'many' |
The long diphthongs (or 'double vowels') are phonemically sequences of a free vowel and a non-syllabic equivalent of or : . Both and tend to be pronounced as , but they are spelled differently: the former as , the latter as .
In diminutives ending in formed to monosyllabic nouns, the vowels are realised as closing diphthongs . In the same environment, the sequences are realized as , i.e. as closing diphthongs followed by palatal nasal.
-
The suffixes and (phonemically and , respectively) and the diminutive suffix are realised as (with a monophthong), rather than .
-
In practice, the diphthong is realised the same as the phonemic diphthong .
-
, when it has arisen from diphthongisation of , differs from the phonemic diphthong by having a slightly different onset, although the exact nature of that difference is unclear. This means that puntjie 'point' sounds somewhat different from puintjie 'rubble'.
German
Standard German
Phonemic diphthongs in
German phonology:
-
as in Ei 'egg'
-
as in Maus 'mouse'
-
as in neu 'new'
In the varieties of German that vocalize the in the syllable coda, other diphthongal combinations may occur. These are only phonetic diphthongs, not phonemic diphthongs, since the vocalic pronunciation alternates with consonantal pronunciations of if a vowel follows, cf. du hörst 'you hear' – ich höre 'I hear'. These phonetic diphthongs may be as follows:
|
|
| | | | wir | we |
| | | | für | for |
| | | | Urlaub | holiday |
| | | | wird | he/she/it becomes |
| | | | Würde | dignity |
| | | | wurde | I/he/she/it became |
| | | | mehr | more |
| | | | hör! | (you) hear! |
| | | | Tor | gate/goal (in football) |
| | | | Bär | bear |
| | | | Erft | Erft |
| | | | dörrt | he/she/it dries |
| | | | Norden | north |
| | | | wahr | true |
| | | | hart | hard |
- notes that the length contrast is not very stable before non-prevocalic
[Also supported by .] He goes on stating that in his own dialect, there is no length difference in these words, and that judgements on vowel length in front of non-prevocalic which is itself vocalized are problematic, in particular if precedes.
- According to the 'lengthless' analysis, the aforementioned 'long' diphthongs are analyzed as , , , , , , and . This makes non-prevocalic and homophonous as or . Non-prevocalic and may also merge, but the vowel chart in shows that they have somewhat different starting points.
- also states that "laxing of the vowel is predicted to take place in shortened vowels; it does indeed seem to go hand in hand with the vowel shortening in many cases."
Bernese German
The diphthongs of some
German dialects differ from standard German diphthongs. The
Bernese German diphthongs, for instance, correspond rather to the Middle High German diphthongs than to standard German diphthongs:
-
as in lieb 'dear'
-
as in guet 'good'
-
as in müed 'tired'
-
as in Bei 'leg'
-
as in Boum 'tree'
-
as in Böim 'trees'
Apart from these phonemic diphthongs, Bernese German has numerous phonetic diphthongs due to L-vocalization in the syllable coda, for instance the following ones:
-
as in Stau 'stable'
-
as in Staau 'steel'
-
as in Wäut 'world'
-
as in wääut 'elects'
-
as in tschúud 'guilty'
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 ) in situations of coarticulatory phenomena or when words with such vowels are being emphasized.
Norwegian
There are five diphthongs in the Oslo dialect of Norwegian, all of them falling:
-
as in nei, "no"
-
as in øy, "island"
-
as in sau, "sheep"
-
as in hai, "shark"
-
as in joik, "Joik"
An additional diphthong, , occurs only in the word hui in the expression i hui og hast "in great haste". The number and form of diphthongs vary between dialects.
Faroese
Diphthongs in
Faroese language 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
Icelandic
Diphthongs in Icelandic are the following:
-
as in átta, "eight"
-
as in nóg, "enough"
-
as in auga, "eye"
-
as in kær, "dear"
-
as in þeir, "they"
-
as in koja, "bunk bed", "berth" (rare, only in handful of words)
Combinations of semivowel and a vowel are the following:
-
as in éta, "eat"
-
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"
-
as in jú, "yes"
French
In
French phonology, , , and may be considered true diphthongs (that is, fully contained in the syllable nucleus: ). Other sequences are considered part of a glide formation process that turns a high vowel into a semivowel (and part of the syllable onset) when followed by another vowel.
Diphthongs
-
as in roi "king", coi "quiet", croix "cross", doigt "finger", droit "right", foi "faith", loi "law", proie "prey", soie "silk", toit "roof", voie "way", voix "voice"
-
as in groin "muzzle", coin "corner", coing "quince", foin "hay", moins "less", loin "far", point "point", poing "fist", soin "care"
-
as in huit "eight", bruit "noise", buis "boxwood", fruit "fruit", fuite "leak", luire "glow", nuire "harm", nuit "night", pluie "rain", suite "continuation"
-
as in juin "June", suint "ooze (tar)"
Semivowels
-
as in oui "yes"
-
as in lien "bond"
-
as in Ariège
-
as in pied "foot"
-
as in yin
-
as in travail "work"
-
as in Marseille
-
as in bille "ball"
-
as in feuille "leaf"
-
as in grenouille "frog"
-
as in vieux "old"
Quebec French
In
Quebec French, long vowels are generally diphthongized in informal speech when
lexical stress.
-
as in tard "late"
-
as in père "father"
-
as in fleur "flower"
-
as in autre "other"
-
as in neutre "neutral"
-
as in banque "bank"
-
as in mince "thin"
-
as in bon "well"
-
as in un "one"
Catalan
Catalan possesses a number of phonetic diphthongs, all of which begin (
rising diphthongs) or end (
falling diphthongs) in or .
| +Catalan diphthongs |
|
| 'table' |
| 'we will fall' |
| 'foot' |
| 'his/her' |
| 'nest' |
| 'new' |
| 'yoke' |
| 'he/she is carrying' |
|
| 'four' |
| 'sequence' |
| 'ointment' |
| 'question' |
| 'penguin' |
| 'payment' |
| |
In standard Eastern Catalan, rising diphthongs (that is, those starting with or ) are possible only in the following contexts:
-
in word initial position, e.g. iogurt.
-
Both occur between vowels as in fe ia and ve iem.
-
In the sequences or and vowel, e.g. g uant, q uota, q üestió, ping üí (these exceptional cases even lead some scholars
[e.g. , ] to hypothesize the existence of rare labiovelar phonemes and ).
There are also certain instances of compensatory diphthongization in the Balearic Catalan 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').
Portuguese
The Portuguese diphthongs are formed by the labio-velar approximant and palatal approximant with a vowel,
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 European and non-European dialects have slightly different pronunciations ( is a distinctive feature of some southern and central Portuguese dialects, especially that of Lisbon). A onglide after or and before all vowels as in
quando ('when') or
guarda ('guard') may also form rising diphthongs and
. Additionally, in casual speech, adjacent heterosyllabic vowels may combine into diphthongs and triphthongs or even sequences of them.
| +Falling diphthongs of Portuguese
!colspan="6" | oral |
|
| |
| |
| anéis | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
In addition, phonetic diphthongs are formed in most Brazilian Portuguese dialects by the L-vocalization of in the syllable coda with words like sol ('sun') and sul ('south') as well as by yodization of vowels preceding or its allophone at syllable coda in terms like arroz ('rice'),
Spanish
Phonetically, Spanish has seven 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'),
almohada ('pillow'),
maestro ('teacher') and
línea ('line'). The Spanish diphthongs are:
| + Spanish diphthongs
! colspan="6" | falling |
| 'pause' |
| 'neutral' |
| 'seine fishing' |
| |
|
| 'picture' |
| 'fire' |
| 'we went' |
| 'quota' |
| |
Italian
The existence of true diphthongs in Italian is debated; however, a list is:
| +Italian diphthongs
!colspan="6" | falling |
| 'car' |
| 'pleurisy' |
| 'neuter' |
| |
| |
| |
|
| 'ford' |
| 'oak' |
| 'that' |
| 'guide' |
| 'quota' |
| 'watery' |
| |
The second table includes only 'false' diphthongs, composed of a semivowel + a vowel, not two vowels. The situation is more nuanced in the first table: a word such as 'baita' is actually pronounced 'baj.ta and most speakers would syllabify it that way. A word such as 'voi' would instead be pronounced and syllabified as 'vo.i, yet again without a diphthong.
In general, unstressed in hiatus can turn into glides in more rapid speech (e.g. biennale 'biennial'; coalizione 'coalition') with the process occurring more readily in syllables further from stress.
Romanian
Romanian has two true diphthongs: and . There are, however, a host of other vowel combinations (more than any other major Romance language) which are classified as vowel glides. As a result of their origin (diphthongization of mid vowels under stress), the two true diphthongs appear only in stressed syllables
and make morphological alternations with the mid vowels and . To native speakers, they sound very similar to and respectively.
There are no perfect
to contrast and ,
and because does not appear in the final syllable of a prosodic word, there are no monosyllabic words with ; exceptions might include
voal ('veil') and
trotuar ('sidewalk'), though Ioana Chițoran argues
that these are best treated as containing glide-vowel sequences rather than diphthongs. In addition to these, the semivowels and can be combined (either before, after, or both) with most vowels, while this arguably
[See for a brief overview of the views regarding Romanian semivowels] forms additional diphthongs and
, only and can follow an obstruent-liquid cluster such as in
broască ('frog') and
dreagă ('to mend'),
implying that and are restricted to the syllable boundary and therefore, strictly speaking, do not form diphthongs.
Irish
All
Irish phonology 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
Scottish Gaelic
There are 9 diphthongs in
Scottish Gaelic. Group 1 occur anywhere (
eu is usually before
-m, e.g.
Seumas). Group 2 are reflexes that occur before
-ll, -m, -nn, -bh, -dh, -gh and
-mh.
|
|
| 1 | | ia | iarr "ask" |
| | ua | fuar "cold" |
| | eu | beul "mouth" |
| 2 | | ai | saill "grease", cainnt "speech", aimhreit "riot" |
| | ei | seinn "sing" |
| | oi, ei, ai | loinn "badge", greim "bite", saighdear "soldier" |
| | ui, aoi | druim "back", aoibhneas "joy" |
| | a, ea | cam "crooked", ceann "head" |
| | o | tom "mound", donn "brown" |
For more detailed explanations of Gaelic diphthongs see Scottish Gaelic orthography.
Cornish
The following diphthongs are used in the Standard Written Form of
Cornish language. Each diphthong is given with its
Revived Middle Cornish (RMC) and
Revived Late Cornish (RLC) pronunciation.
|
|
| aw | | | glaw "rain" |
| ay | | | bay "kiss" |
| ew | | blew "hair" |
| ey | | | bleydh "wolf" |
| iw | | | liw "colour" |
| ow | | lowen "happy" |
| oy | | moy "more" |
| uw | | | duw "god" |
| yw | | | byw "alive" |
Welsh
Welsh language is traditionally divided into Northern and Southern dialects. In the north, some diphthongs may be short or long according to regular vowel length rules but in the south they are always short (see
Welsh phonology). Southern dialects tend to simplify diphthongs in speech (e.g. gwaith is reduced to ).
|
| ae | | | maen 'stone' |
| ai | | gwaith 'work' |
| au† | | haul 'sun' |
| aw | | | mawr 'big' |
| ei | | | gweithio 'to work' |
| eu | | treulio 'spend' |
| ey | teyrn 'tyrant' |
| ew | | | tew 'fat' |
| oe | | | moel 'bald' |
| ou | cyffrous 'excited' |
| oi | | troi 'turn' |
| ow | | | brown 'brown' |
| wy | | | pwyll 'sense' |
| iw | | | lliw 'colour' |
| uw | | duw 'god' |
| yw | llyw 'rudder' |
| | | tywydd 'weather' |
- † The plural ending -au is reduced to in the north and in the south, e.g. cadau 'battles' is (north) or (south).
Czech
There are three diphthongs in
Czech phonology:
-
as in auto (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)
-
as in euro (in words of foreign origin only)
-
as in koule
The vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are not regarded as diphthongs, they are pronounced with between the vowels .
Serbo-Croatian
-
i(j)e, as in mlijeko
may be pronounced as a diphthong, but also as in hiatus or separated by a semivowel, . For example, in the first line of the national anthem of Croatia,
Lijepa naša domovina,
ije is pronounced as a diphthong, but in the first line of the national anthem of Montenegro,
Oj, svijetla majska zoro,
ije is pronounced as two syllables.
Some Serbo-Croatian dialects also have uo, as in kuonj, ruod, uon
Uralic languages
Estonian
All nine vowels can appear as the first component of an Estonian diphthong, but only occur as the second component.
| +Common Estonian diphthongs |
laud
"table" |
kiuste
"in spite of" |
| |
| |
lõug
"chin" |
näuguma
"to meow" |
| |
There are additional diphthongs less commonly used, such as in Euroopa (Europe), in söandama (to dare), and in näuguma (to mew).
Finnish
All
Finnish language diphthongs are falling. Notably, Finnish has true opening diphthongs (e.g. ), which are not very common crosslinguistically compared to centering diphthongs (e.g. in English). Vowel combinations across syllables may in practice be pronounced as diphthongs, when an intervening consonant has elided, as in
näön instead of for the genitive of
näkö ('sight').
- closing
-
as in laiva (ship)
-
as in keinu (swing)
-
as in poika (boy)
-
as in äiti (mother)
-
as in öisin (at nights)
-
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 smarten up)
- opening
-
as in kieli (tongue)
-
as in suo (bog)
-
as in yö (night)
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:
-
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.
Semitic languages
Maltese
Maltese language has seven falling diphthongs, though they may be considered VC sequences phonemically.
-
ej or għi
-
aj or għi
-
oj
-
iw
-
ew
-
aw or għu
-
ow or għu
Sino-Tibetan languages
Mandarin Chinese
Rising sequences in Mandarin are usually regarded as a combination of a medial semivowel () plus a vowel, while falling sequences are regarded as one diphthong.
-
ai: , as in 愛 ài ()
-
ao: , as in 道 dào ()
-
ei: , as in 累 lèi ()
-
ou: , as in 豆 dòu ()
Cantonese
Cantonese has eleven falling diphthongs.
-
aai: , as in 街 gaai1 ()
-
aau: , as in 爆 baau3 ()
-
ai: , as in 雞 gai1 ()
-
au: , as in 勾 ngau1 ()
-
ei: , as in 機 gei1 ()
-
eu: , as in 掉 deu6 ()
-
eui: , as in 醉 zeoi3 ()
-
iu: , as in 叫 giu3 ()
-
oi: , as in 愛 oi3 ()
-
ou: , as in 高 gou1 ()
-
ui: , as in 陪 pui4 ()
Tai–Kadai languages
Thai
In addition to vowel nuclei following or preceding and ,
Thai phonology has three diphthongs:
Mon-Khmer languages
Vietnamese
In addition to vowel nuclei following or preceding and , Vietnamese has three diphthongs:
Khmer
Khmer language has rich vocalics with an extra distinction of long and short register to the vowels and diphthongs.
Bantu languages
Zulu
Zulu language has only monophthongs.
Y and
w are semi-vowels:
-
as in ngiyabeka (I am placing it)
-
as in ngiwa (I fall/I am falling)
Austronesian languages
Indonesian
Indonesian has four diphthongs which may be located at the beginning, middle or end of a word.
[ Minister of Education and Culture Decree No: 50/2015, Jakarta, 2015.] They are:
-
: bal airung ('hall'), ked ai ('shop'), pandai ('clever')
-
: au todidak ('autodidact'), Tau fik (Indonesian given name), kerbau ('buffalo'), lim au ('lemon')
-
(or in Indonesian): b oikot ('boycott'), amb oi (an expression when amazed)
-
: ei gendom ('property'), survei ('survey')
See also
Bibliography
