Page 107 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 8: Diphthongs and Its Phonetic Transcription

starting point, while in price their starting point is more like cart. In traditional RP the starting Notes
points are much the same. Upton’s notation implicitly identifies the first element of price with
the vowel quality of cut — an identification that accords with the habits neither of RP nor of
southeastern speech (Estuary English). His choice of [ w ] is really very unsuitable.
• My recommendation is therefore to remain with the standard scheme
Self-Assessment

1. Write the symbol for the diphthong you hear in each word. (1—12).
8.4 Summary

• Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during
the pronunciation of the vowel. In most dialects of English, the words eye, hay, boy, low, and cow
contain diphthongs.
• Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue doesn’t move and only one vowel
sound is heard in a syllable. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables—for
example, 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 (phonemes).
• Diphthong in phonetics, a gliding vowel in the articulation of which there is a continuous
transition from one position to another. Diphthongs are to be contrasted in this respect with so-
called pure vowels-i.e., unchanging, or steady state, vowels. Though they are single speech
sounds, diphthongs are usually represented, in a phonetic transcription of speech, by means of
a pair of characters indicating the initial and final configurations of the vocal tract. Many of the
vowel sounds in most dialects of English are diphthongs: e.g., the vowels of “out” and “ice,”
represented as [au] and [ai], respectively.
• In closing diphthongs, the second element is more close than the first (e.g. [ai]); in opening
diphthongs, the second element is more open (e.g. [ia]). Closing diphthongs tend to be falling
([ ai ]), and opening diphthongs are generally rising ([ ia ]), as open vowels are more sonorous
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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 / ie / and uo / are true
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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. These were particularly characteristic
of Old English, which had diphthongs such as / F Y/, / eo /.
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• 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.
8.5 Key-Words

1. Vocalic/non-vocalic : Vowel is differentiated from consonant by this feature.
Vocalics are marked by resonance patterns.
2. Compact/diffuse : Shape and volume of the resonance chamber characterise
these features. Compact sounds show closer, resonance
patterns.

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