Diphthong encyclopedia topics

Types of diphthongs

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.

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.

Diphthongs in various languages

Catalan

Catalan possesses a number of phonetic diphthongs, all of which begin or end in [j] or [w]. They include:

[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].

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').

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).

Croatian

i(j)e, as in mlijeko

Croatian dialects also have uo, as in kuonj, ruod, uon while, in Standard Croatian, these words are konj, rod, on)

Czech

There are three diphthongs in Czech:

/aʊ̯/ as in auto (almost exclusively in words of foreign origin)
/eʊ̯/ as in euro (in words of foreign origin only)
/oʊ̯/ as in koule

Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are not regarded as diphthongs, they are pronounced with /j/ between the vowels .

Dutch

Diphthongs of Dutch
	Netherlandic	Belgian
zeis#Dutch	[ɛɪ̯]
ui#Dutch	[œʏ̯]
zout#Dutch	[ʌʊ̯]	[ɔʊ̯]
beet#Dutch	[eɪ̯]	[eː]
neus#Dutch	[øʏ̯]	[øː]
boot#Dutch	[oʊ̯]	[oː]

[eɪ̯], [øʏ̯], and [oʊ̯] are normally pronounced as closing diphthongs except before [ɾ] in the same word, in which case they are centering diphthongs: [eə̯], [øə̯], and [oə̯]. In many dialects, they are monophthongized

The dialect of Hamont (in Limburg) has five centring diphthongs and contrasts long and short forms of [ɛɪ̯], [œʏ̯], [ɔʊ̯], and [ɑʊ̯].

English

All English diphthongs are falling.

Standard English diphthongs
	RP (British)	Australian	American
	RP (British)	Australian	GA	Canadian
low	[əʊ̯]	[əʉ̯]	[oʊ̯]
loud	[aʊ̯]	[æɔ̯]	[aʊ̯]	[aʊ̯]
lout	[aʊ̯]	[æɔ̯]	[aʊ̯]	[əʊ̯]
lied	[aɪ̯]	[ɑe̯]	[aɪ̯]	[aɪ̯]
light	[aɪ̯]	[ɑe̯]	[aɪ̯]	[əɪ̯]
lane	[eɪ̯]	[æɪ]	[eɪ̯]
loin	[ɔɪ̯]	[oɪ]	[ɔɪ̯]
leer	[ɪə̯]	[ɪə̯]	[ɪɚ̯]
lair	[ɛə̯]	[eː]	[ɛɚ]
lure	[ʊə̯]	[ʊə̯]	[ʊɚ̯]

Canadian English exhibits allophony of [aʊ̯] and [aɪ̯] called Canadian raising.
In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to [ɛː] and [oː] respectively. Australian English speakers more readily monophthongize the former but it is listed here anyway.
In Rhotic dialects, words like pair, poor, and peer can be analyzed as diphthongs, although other descriptions analyze them as vowels with [ɹ] in the coda.

Faroese

Diphthongs in Faroese are:

/ai/ as in bein (can also be short)
/au/ as in havn
/ɛa/ as in har, mær
/ɛi/ as in hey
/ɛu/ as in nevnd
/œu/ as in nøvn
/ʉu/ as in hús
/ʊi/ as in mín, bý, ið (can also be short)
/ɔa/ as in ráð
/ɔi/ as in hoyra (can also be short)
/ɔu/ as in sól, ovn

Finnish

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). closing

[ai̯] as in laiva (ship)
[ei̯] as in keinu (swing)
[oi̯] as in poika (boy)
[æi̯] as in äiti (mother)
[øi̯] as in öisin (at night)
[au̯] as in lauha (mild)
[eu̯] as in leuto (mild)
[ou̯] as in koulu (school)
[ey̯] as in leyhyä (to waft)
[æy̯] as in täysi (full)
[øy̯] as in löytää (to find) close
[ui̯] as in uida (to swim)
[yi̯] as in lyijy (lead)
[iu̯] as in viulu (violin)
[iy̯] as in siistiytyä (to clean up) opening
[ie̯] as in kieli (tongue)
[uo̯] as in suo (bog)
[yø̯] as in yö (night)

French

Some diphthongs in French:

/wa/ as in roi "king"
/wi/ as in oui "yes"
/ɥi/ as in huit "eight"
/jɛ̃/ as in bien "well (adv.)"
/jɛ/ as in Ariège
/aj/ as in travail "work"
/ej/ as in Marseille
/œj/ as in feuille "leaf"
/uj/ as in grenouille "frog"
/jø/ as in vieux "old"

All French diphthongs are typically analysed as a combination of a vowel and a semi-vowel (in either order).

German

Diphthongs in German:

[aɪ̯] as in Reich 'empire'
[aʊ̯] as in Maus 'mouse'
[ɔʏ̯] as in neu 'new'
[eːɐ̯] as in sehr 'very'
[iːɐ̯] as in dir 'you (dative)'
[oːɐ̯] as in Bor 'boron (element)'
[øːɐ̯] as in Öhr 'eye (hole in a needle)'
[uːɐ̯] as in nur 'only'
[yːɐ̯] as in Tür 'door'

Some diphthongs in Bernese, a Swiss German dialect:

[iə̯] as in Bier 'beer'
[yə̯] as in Füess 'feet'
[uə̯] as in Schue 'shoes'
[ou̯] as in Stou 'holdup'
[au̯] as in Stau 'stable'
[aːu̯] as in Staau 'steel'
[æu̯] as in Wäut 'world'
[æːu̯] as in wääut 'elects'
[ʊu̯] as in tschúud 'guilty'

Hungarian

The general consensus is that standard Hungarian has no diphthongs. However linguists 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 with a hiatus, that is as two syllables in words like kalauz /ˈkɒ.lɒ.uz/. On the other hand some phoneticians 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).

Icelandic

Diphthongs in Icelandic are the following:

/aw/ as in átta, "eight"
/ow/ as in nóg, "enough"
/œɥ/ as in auga, "eye"
/aj/ as in hæ, "hi"
/ej/ as in þeir, "they"

Combinations of j and a vowel are the following:

/ja/ as in jata, "manger"
/jaw/ as in já, "yes"
/jo/ as in joð, "iodine," "jay," "yod" (only in a handful of words of foreign origin)
/jow/ as in jól, "Christmas"
/jœ/ as in jötunn, "giant"
/jaj/ as in jæja, "oh well"

Irish

All Irish diphthongs are falling.

[əi̯], spelled aigh, aidh, agh, adh, eagh, eadh, eigh, or eidh
[əu̯], spelled abh, amh, eabh, or eamh
[iə̯], spelled ia, iai
[uə̯], spelled ua, uai

Italian

In standard Italian, only falling diphthongs are considered to be true diphthongs.falling

[ai̯] as in avrai
[ei̯] as in dei (preposition)
[ɛi̯] as in direi
[oi̯] as in voi
[ɔi̯] as in poi
[au̯] as in pausa
[eu̯] as in Europa
[ɛu̯] as in feudorising
[ja] as in piano
[je] as in ateniese
[jɛ] as in piede
[jo] as in fiore
[jɔ] as in piove
[ju] as in più
[wa] as in guado
[we] as in quello
[wɛ] as in guerra
[wi] as in qui
[wo] as in liquore
[wɔ] as in nuoto

Other combinations, such as , are generally considered hiatus by grammarians; however phonetically they are often true diphthongs in poetry and common speech.

Latvian

Diphthongs in Latvianfalling

[ai̯] as in laiva
[ɛi̯] as in beigas
[ɔi̯] as in koika
[ui̯] as in puika

[au̯] as in tauva
[eu̯] as in tev
[iu̯] as in pliukš
[ou̯] as in souls
[yu̯] as in myusu (dial.)

[iɛ̯] as in iela
[uo̯] as in ruoka

Mandarin Chinese

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.rising

ia/ya:

[i̯a], as in jiā (家, home), yā (鴨, duck)
[i̯ɛ], as in jiǎn (剪, to cut), yǎn (眼, eye)
[i̯ɑ], as in xiǎng (想, to think), yǎng (癢, itchy)

ie/ye: [i̯ɛ], as in xiè (謝, to thank), yè (葉, leaf)
yo: [i̯ɔ], as in yō (唷, an interjection) ¹
iong/yong: [i̯ɤŋ], as in xiōng (兇, menacing), yǒng (永, forever)
ua/wa:

[u̯a], as in guā (瓜, melon), wā (挖, to dig), guǎn (管, tube), uǎn (碗, bowl)
[u̯ɑ], as in zhuāng (裝, to fill), wàng (忘, to forget)

wen: [u̯ən], as in wèn (問, to ask) ¹²
weng: [u̯ɤŋ], as in wēng (翁, old man) ¹²
uo/wo: [u̯ɔ], as in huǒ (火, fire), wǒ (我, I)
üan/yuan: [y̯ɛn], as in xüǎn (選, to choose), yuǎn (遠, far) ²
üe/yue: [y̯ɛ], as in xüé (學, to learn), yuè (越, to cross)falling
ai: [ai̯], as in ài (愛, love)
ei: [ei̯], as in lèi (累, love)
ao: [ɑʊ̯], as in dào (道, way)
ou: [oʊ̯], as in dòu (豆, bean)

¹ only occurs in isolation

² always followed by nasal

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:

/eæ/ as in leat "to be"
/ie/ as in giella "language"
/oa/ as in boahtit "to come"
/uo/ 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.

Norwegian

There are five diphthongs in Norwegian:

[æɪ̯] as in nei, "no"
[øʏ̯] as in øy, "island"
[æʉ̯] as in sau, "sheep"
[ɑɪ̯] as in hai, "shark"
[ɔʏ̯] as in joik, "Sami song"

An additional diphthong, [ʉ̫ʏ̯], only occurs in the word hui in the expression i hui og hast "in great haste".

Portuguese

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 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; in more formal speech, these are realized as hiatus e.g., férias [ˈfɛ.ɾi.ɐʃ] ~ [ˈfɛ.ɾjɐʃ].

Diphthongs of Portuguese
	EP	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]	[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').

Romanian

Romanian builds its descending diphthongs using two semivowels and its ascending diphthongs using four. falling

[ai̯] as in mai
[au̯] as in dau
[ei̯] as in lei
[eu̯] as in leu
[ii̯] as in mii (no vocalic glide, but still a diphthong)
[iu̯] as in fiu
[oi̯] as in goi
[ou̯] as in nou
[ui̯] as in pui
[əi̯] as in răi
[əu̯] as in rău
[ɨi̯] as in câine
[ɨu̯] as in râurising
[e̯a] as in stea
[e̯o] as in George
[i̯a] as in iapă
[i̯e] as in fier
[i̯o] as in chior
[i̯u] as in iubit
[o̯a] as in oameni
[u̯a] as in ziua
[u̯ə] as in două

Spanish

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:falling

/ei̯/ as in rey ('king')
/ai̯/ as in aire ('air')
/oi̯/ as in hoy ('today')
/eu̯/ as in neutro ('neutral')
/au̯/ as in pausa ('break')
/ou̯/ as in bou ('seine fishing')rising
/je/ as in tierra ('earth')
/ja/ as in hacia ('towards')
/jo/ as in radio ('radio')
/ju/ as in viuda ('widow')
/wi/ as in fuimos ('we went')
/we/ as in fuego ('fire')
/wa/ as in cuadro ('picture')
/wo/ as in cuota ('quota')

Thai

In addition to vowel nuclei following /j/ and /w/, Thai has three diphthongs:

[ia̯]
[ɯa̯]
[ua̯]

Yiddish

Yiddish has three diphthongs:

[ɛɪ̯] as in [plɛɪ̯tə] פליטה ('refugee' f.)
[aɛ̯] as in [naɛ̯n] נײַן ('nine')
[ɔə̯] as in [ɔəf̯n̩] אופֿן ('way')

Diphthongs may reach a higher target position (towards /i/) in situations of coarticulatory phenomena or when words with such vowels are being emphasized.