Diphthongs in English

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English Diphthongs

• Spanish similarities and differences.

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English and Spanish Vowels.
I
?
?
?
Julio Torrecillas, 2003
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Vowels

• Vowels are determined by changes in position of
  the lips, tongue and palate.
• These changes can be very slight and difficult to
  detect.
• In English, vowels can also glide into (move
  quietly) one another to form diphthongs and even
  tripthongs.

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Diphthongs Centring

• Diphthongs are those sounds that consist of a
  movement or glide from one vowel to another.
• The first part of a diphthong is always longer
  and stronger than the second part

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Diphthongs Closing
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/ei/
Spelling

• The sound /ei/ is usually written with the
  letters
• "A" baby, face, late, page, place, same, take.
  (The final "e" indicates that "a" is pronounced
  /ei/. without this final "e" the pronunciation
  would be a vowel, e.g.
• Sam sæm, bath ba?
• "AY" day, say, stay, today, way.
• "Al" rain Spain, train, wait.
• "EA" great weight steak,
• Other spellings grey, they, break, eight.

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Transcribe the following words.
Paper Sail Radio James Railway Station Newspaper date
peip? seil reidi?u ?eimz reilwei stei?n njuspeip? deit.
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/ou/ /??/

• This has two sounds /?/ and /u/ or /?/. The
  second element of the diphthong is very short and
  the first one is longer than /e/.

The lips at the beginning are in a neutral
position and then gradually rounded as the tongue
rises to make /u/.
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Spelling

• The sound /??/ is usually written with the
  letters
• - o go, hello, no, old, only, hotel.
• - o...e home, hole, nose, those.
• - oa boat, coat, road, Joan.
• -ow know, low, narrow, show, slow, thro
• -ou though, soul, shoulder.
• Some words
• Boat Joan, Joness hotel hello.

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/ai/

• This has two sounds /a/ and then add /i/, this
  is a short sound. Most students have little or
  no difficulties with this sound.

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Spelling.

• The sound /ai/ is usually written with the
  letters i or y.

i, y child, find, five, smile, try, by, fly,
right, sky, ... - igh high, light, night, right,
bright. -ye eye, goodbye. - Other spellings
lie, buy,
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Transcription.
pai kait, klaimi? raidi? rais,
brait ais krim ais skeiti?
gudnait, fraidi

• Pie
• kite
• climbing
• riding
• Rice
• bright
• ice-cream
• ice-skating
• goodnight
• Friday

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/a?/

• The first sound is, in some way, similar to /æ/,
  then add /u/ this second sound is very short.

There is an /au/ diphthong in Spanish but it is
pronounced higher and it is much more tense than
the English equivalent.
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Spelling

• The sound /au/ is written with the letters
• ou about, mouth, count, round, out, round.
• ow cow, crowd, flower, down, now, town, brown.

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Transcription
fla??z maus, mais, ?a?znd ka?z,
tra?z?z.

• Flowers
• Mouse
• mice
• thousand
• cows
• trousers

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/??/

• The two sounds in this diphthong are /?/ even
  pronounced longer, then /i/, being even shorter.
  There are few words for practice of this sound at
  beginner level.

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The sound /?i/ is written with the letters-oi
noise, point, voice, ...-oy boy, toy, employ,
...
Spelling
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Centring Diphthongs
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Centring Diphthongs

• /??/
• In this diphthong both elements are short, but
  the accent falls on the first one.
• When this diphthong is followed by an r, this
  consonant is not pronounced except when the
  following syllable or word begins with a vowel,
  in this case a linking r can be pronounced.
• E.g. fearing fi?ri?

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Spelling

• -ea dear, hear, ear, near.
• -er,eer deer, beer, here.
• Other spellings idea, real, museum.

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/e?//e?/

• The first sound is an /e/ but you have to make it
  a little longer, then add /?/. Most students
  produce the -er ending with the r always
  pronounced.
• Theres a book on the table.
• Its there.

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Spelling

• -are share, scare, mare, care.
• -air chair, pair, air, ...
• - ear bear, tear
• -ere where, there.
• Other spellings their, theyre, wear, Mary.

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Transcription

• Beer
• near
• Here
• chair
• Where
• airport
• square

bi? ni? hi? ?e? we? e?p?t skwe?
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/o?/

• The diphthong /o?/ is normally replaced by a /?/
  by RP speakers, that is why I dont think it is
  important but although we dont care about its
  production you should understand it.
• Spelling
• -oar, ore, our, oor boar, for, soar, your, pour,
  more, door, ...

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/??/

• The first element is a /u/ and the second one is
  a /?/.It is often pronounced /?/ or /?/ Look at
  the following examples
• poor p?? p?? p?
• sure ??? ??? ??
• Spellings -ou, ure, oor tour, pure, moor

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Triphthongs

• Some people also speak of triphthongs ai?,
  ei?, au?, ?u?, oi?
• Fire, flower, shower, player, theyre, lower,
  enjoyable in?oi?bl.

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