1 Prof Francisco Zabala - 2016 The English Diphthongs A diphthong is “a vowel sound where the tongue glides from one vowel position in the direction of another, within the same syllable” (Finch & Ortíz-Lira, 1982: 186) Each of them is a unique contrastive phoneme made up of two elements The first element is clearly articulated, while the second element is never actually reached As a result, it is the first element that can be affected by clipping In contrast, the second element may even be lost when a vowel follows (see smoothing and levelling) Classification of diphthongs: According to their prominence, they have traditionally been classified as either falling or rising A falling diphthong is, as described above, a vowel glide whose more prominent element is the first one All the English diphthongs are falling In the past, authors referred to the weak sequence h-?+ t-? as a rising diphthong, whose second element was more prominent than the first Nowadays, these sequences can be analysed as either made up of a h-?+ t-? vowel hiatus (i.e two vowels that belong to different syllables) or as a sequence of a semi-vowel followed by schwa (i.e .i?+ v?.) To illustrate this point, we can see a falling diphthong in words such as fear !eH? and poor !oT?., and alternatively, a possible hiatus in easier !h9y-h-?.and usual !it9Y-t-?k or their corresponding compressed versions !h9y-i?+ !it9Y-v?k According to the direction of the glide, diphthongs can be either centring or closing Centring diphthongs are those whose gliding movement goes in the direction of the central vowel ? Closing diphthongs are vowel glides that move towards a close position, either front-closing H or back-closing T According to the distance of the glide, diphthongs can be either wide or narrow Wide diphthongs are those that entail a wide tongue movement inside the mouth, while narrow diphthongs are those that show a gentler movement Falling dH+ `H+ NH+ `T+ ?T+ H?+ d?+ T? Rising h-?=i? .t-?=v? Prominence The English Diphthongs Centring H?+ d?+ T? Closing Front dH+ `H+ NH Direction Back `T+ ?T Distance Wide Narrow Vowel chart: References: Finch & Ortíz-Lira, 1982 `H+ `T+ NH .dH+ ?T+ H?+ d?+ T?