1. 2011-12 LINGUA INGLESE 1 modulo A/B Introduction to English Linguistics prof. Hugo Bowles
Lesson 9 Diphthongs

2. DIPHTHONGS fear go house I pain pear tour toy here know how my play
there
pour
voice
beer
home
down
either
cave
where
choice
hear
bone
loud
eye
reign
air
clear
sew
sigh
made
heir
dear
crow
thai
maid
wear
Don’t
tie
obey
foam
pay
foe

3. TRIPHTHONGS /ei/ + schwa /ai /+ schwa /au/ + schwa /oi/ + schwa
schwa + /u/ + schwa
player
fire
hour
royal
lower
liar
power

4. Minimal pairs Beware of heard a dreadful word that
looks like beard and
sounds like bird

5. While the position of the tongue is more or less stable for a pure vowel…

6. … a diphthong is characterised by a graceful movement from one point to another, for this reason they are also sometimes known as glides.

7. English diphthongs may cause Italian speakers difficulty for two main reasons:
Italian has four diphthongs while English has eight. All the Italian diphthongs have equivalents in English which are not the same but which are reasonably similar
Nowhere is the English spelling system more bizarre than in its representation of diphthongs

8. If one has a clear idea of where pure vowels are articulated on the quadrilateral then interpreting the diphthong symbols is not difficult.

9. Technically, English diphthongs are divided into two groups:
Closing diphthongs – which tend to move from an open to a close position, these roughly correspond to Italian sounds
Centring diphthongs – which tend towards a central position

10. First we will look at the closing group…

11. … the ‘pay’, ‘ made’, ‘maid’, ‘reign’, ‘obey’, sound:

12. Then we have the ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘tie’, ‘sigh’, ‘either’, ‘eye’, ‘Thai’, sound:

13. Then there is ‘boy’, ‘choice’:

14. Then ‘down’, ‘loud’:

15. To end the closing group, the most common diphthong in English, that of ‘no’, ‘know’,‘bone’, ‘foam’, ‘sew’, ‘though’, ‘don’t’, ‘foe’, ‘crow’:

16. To start with the centring group, we have the most common, that of ‘clear’, ‘deer’, ‘here’, ‘wier’:

17. Then ‘air’, ‘where’, wear’, ‘care’, ‘heir’:

18. Finally, there is a diphthong which is quite rare - ‘tour’, ‘poor’:

19. Pronunciation change
Poor used to be pronounced like puer in Latin (and still is in some regions, e.g. Scotland).
Now it tends to be pronounced as a long vowel (like “door” and “more”)
Is there a difference between the pronunciation of “poor” and “paw” (zampa) ?

20. Finally:
Diphthongs are the element in a language which are most liable to change. The majority of the characteristics of a given accent are usually to be found in this area, so understanding of the underlying mechanics is vital if one wants to understand accents and accent change.