Diphthongs. General characteristics.
Diphthongs , ,
Accent in diphthongs
Diphthongs , , ,
Diphthong
Diphthongs , ,
Diphthongs , ,
Thrifthongs
general characteristics
In addition to the five simple vowel sounds [a, e, i, o, u], in Spanish there are also complex vowel sounds - 14 diphthongs and 4 triphthongs. Diphthongs are the elements of two vowels that form a single and indivisible vowel sound pronounced in one syllable. Of the two elements of a diphthong, one always prevails over the other, forming the core of the diphthong. This core is always shock.
All diphthongs are divided into two large groups: ascending and descending. Ascending diphthongs are those that combine a weak and a strong vowel or two weak vowels (strong vowels a, o, e; weak vowels i, u). Falling diphthongs are those that combine strong and weak vowels.
Ascending diphthongs
| Descending diphthongs
|
Diphthongs , ,
In diphthongs, , the nucleus is the first element. The second element is the semivowel sound, common to all three diphthongs.
Diphthong - ai, ay. At first, the jaws and tongue occupy the same position as during articulation [a], then the jaws quickly close and the tongue moves forward, approaching the front of the palate, that is, a semivowel sound is pronounced [i].
Sounds like the one described above are often found in vowel mergers,
For example: An a y Pablo
ai And aw(at the end of words). For example:
hay, baile, Jaime, Justina y Vicente, Adelaida
Similar sounds in Russian are the non-syllabic and, pronounced after A,
For example: May, give me. You need to keep in mind that the diphthong is shorter and more intense.
Diphthong - ei, ey. The first part of the diphthong is articulated as a vowel [e]
For example: la pluma de Inés
In writing, this diphthong is represented by a combination of letters ei And eu(at the end of words).
Examples: peine, seis, veis, veinte, afeito, ley
Diphthong- oh, oh. The diphthong is first articulated as a vowel [o], the second part is like a semivowel. Sounds like , often found in vowel mergers,
For example: bonit o y feo
In writing, this diphthong is represented by a combination of letters oi and ou (at the end of words).
Examples: voy, sois, doy, heroico, soy, hoy, oigo
Accent in diphthongs
In diphthongs, the stress always falls on the nucleus. If the stress falls on a weak vowel, then this combination is not a diphthong, and in these cases an accent mark is placed.
For example: oí(compare: oigo)
Diphthongs , , ,
The common element for all these diphthongs is the sound [j], which is articulated as follows: the front part of the back of the tongue rises, approaching the hard palate, then falls, occupying the position necessary to pronounce the second element. The articulation of the first part of these diphthongs occurs very quickly. The sound seems to be sliding. The main stress falls on the core, that is, on the vowels e, o, a, and. In the Russian language there are sound combinations similar to these diphthongs. These sound combinations can be pronounced as one syllable, but when pronounced clearly, both sounds form different syllables. Compare, for example: academia - academy, paciente - patient, familiar - familiar
Diphthong ie.
Examples: bien, quiero, quien, tiene, tiempo, viejo, siempre, viernes, también, ciento, quieto, defiende
Diphthong represented in writing by a letter combination io
Examples: periódico, ejercicio, habitatión, ediflcio, unión, limpio, canción, armario, dio, escritorio, biblioteca, despacio
Diphthong represented in writing by a letter combination ia
Examples: estudiante, limpia, estudia, sabia, gracias, inocencia, sucia
Diphthong represented in writing by a letter combination iu
It is a combination of two weak vowels, unlike the diphthongs described above. The emphasis falls on the second element.
Examples: viuda, veintiuno, ciudad, ciudadano, diurno
These four diphthongs appear not only within a word, but also at the junction of two words separated, for example, by the conjunction at.
Examples:
el lapiz y e l papel
gris y o scuro
querer at a mar
total u universal
If in vowel combinations ie, ia, io, iu the emphasis falls on i i there is a graphic accent mark.
For example: decía, poesía, día, vacío
Compare the following pairs of words:
tenia - tenia; periodico - periodo; pie - pie; miope - mío; diario - día; vacio - vacio
Diphthong
The core of this diphthong is the second element, that is, the sound [e]. When spoken [And], but when switching to pronouncing the kernel [e] the lips suddenly part and stretch out as if to smile. The most important thing here is speed and brevity of pronunciation. The first element is pronounced almost instantly, with a sharp sliding movement of the lips. In order to achieve such a pronunciation, the lips must prepare for articulation, stretching and rounding already when pronouncing the consonant sound preceding the diphthong (if there is one). For example, in the word puerta sound [R] pronounced with elongated and rounded lips.
In the Russian language, as you know, there are no diphthongs, but the most similar to
Russian sounds are those that appear during fluent pronunciation of the combinations: this one, Emma's
Examples: puerta, luego, cruel, pueblo, nuestro, fuerte, nueve, fuera, ruego, suelo, nuevo
Diphthongs , ,
When pronouncing all these diphthongs, the same as when ue the lips initially take the same position as when [u], and then the core is pronounced (vowels a, o, i)
Diphthong ua at Anna's.
Examples: cuatro, cuaderno, lengua, cuadro, cuanto, cual, cuando, agua, guapo, guardia
Diphthong represented in writing by letters uo. The most similar Russian sound appears when pronouncing the combination fluently at Olya's.
Examples: evacuo, antiguo, continue, contiguo
Diphthong represented in writing by letters ui. In a word muy - uy. This diphthong is a combination of two weak vowels, unlike the diphthongs described above. The most similar Russian sound appears when pronouncing the combination fluently at Igor's.
Examples: muy, cuidado, ruido, ruina, ruiseñor
If in vowel combinations úa, úo, úi the emphasis falls on u, then such combinations are not diphthongs, and in this case over u there is an accent mark.
Examples: acentúa, acentúo, habitúa, dúo
Diphthongs , ,
In all these diphthongs the first element is the nucleus. The second element, common to all three diphthongs, is the semivowel sound [And]. At first, the jaws take the same position as when pronouncing vowels [a], [e], [o], but then the language, influenced by subsequent [And], pulls back. Then the lips vigorously extend and round, and the back of the back of the tongue rises, approaching the hard palate.
Diphthong - au. A very similar sound combination is obtained in Russian when a word is pronounced quickly pause
Examples: aula, sauce, causa, and a U sted, pausa
Diphthong - eu
Examples: feudal, pone Usted, deuda, come Usted
Diphthong - ou. This diphthong almost never occurs within words; it appears mainly in vowel mergers, for example:
termin o u n cuaderno, pregunt o u na cosa, trabaj o u nrato
Thrifthongs
A triphthong is a combination of three vowels (one strong between two weak). Triphthong, like diphthong, is pronounced as one syllable. The emphasis falls on the strong vowel.
Possible triphthongs:
iai - estudiáis, despreciáis
iei-limpieis
uai, uay - Uruguay, Paraguay; averiguais
uei, uey - buey; averigüéis
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The nature of the vowel changes throughout its pronunciation in the flow of speech, i.e. the vowel is heterogeneous from an acoustic point of view. However, this heterogeneity, arising as a result of the influence of neighboring sounds, is insignificant from a phonemic point of view; it remains invisible to the speaker and the listener.
A special category of vowels is represented by two-part vowels, which, however, constitute a certain unity. This unity can be defined purely phonetically as the “unity” of pronunciation and phonemically as the inseparability into two phonemes. This circumstance forced phonetics to introduce the concept of diphthong (gr. di(s) twice, double + phthongos voice, sound).
A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds in one syllable, functioning as a single, complex unit of sound system.
The main phonetic recognition of a diphthong is that it represents a combination of two vowels making up one syllable. These sounds are often very contrasting in quality. For example: open vowels are combined with closed ones: ; unrounded with rounded; but a combination of vowels that are similar in articulation is also possible.
There are 3 types of diphthongs to distinguish:
falling (descending) diphthongs, where a vowel as the top of a syllable precedes another consonant, i.e. the apex of the syllable is in the first element of the diphthong (German Maus - mouse, Eis - ice)
ascending diphthongs, where, on the contrary, the apex follows the consonant vowel (Spanish puedo - I can)
equilibrium, where an unstable equilibrium prevails, so that it is impossible to distinguish which of both vowels is the top (Latvian meita - daughter)
L.V. Shcherba considered the first two types to be false diphthongs, because their components are unequal - one of them is subordinate; He called the third type a true diphthong, i.e. both components, while maintaining the integrity of the syllable, remain phonetically equivalent.
The phonemic interpretation of diphthongs is one of the most difficult phonological problems in general. The question is whether a diphthong is a combination of two independent phonemes or is one phonetically complex phoneme. In general, this question is a special case of the general problem of dividing the speech stream. As already mentioned, the strongest factor of division is morphological. Only in the case when the corresponding combination is phonemic can we talk about a diphthong as a phonemic unit. Diphthongs are never morphologically divided. There is no word in which the morphological boundary passes between the components of the diphthong. It is impossible to give an example in which the diphthong component turns out to be an independent morphological unit.
In Russian give, sing (in phonemic transcription /daj/, /poj/ combinations ah, Ouch are pronounced with a single articulatory movement, in which the second component is a reduced non-syllabic [¹]. Diphthongs are phonemically decomposable. It is enough to conjugate the indicated verbs to see that both components of these two-vowels have different morphological functions belonging to different morphemes.
In the present tense of the verbs discussed above, the syllable boundary passes within the diphthongs: /pa-ju/ I sing, I give /da-ju/.
Thus, from the point of view of syllable division, Russian diphthongs turn out to be phonemically decomposable, i.e. they are a combination of two phonemes and come from two independent units.
In him. in the word Mai /mae/ the diphthong always remains within one syllable, i.e. here the diphthong is a single phoneme. In the German language, unlike Russian, diphthongs never go back to two independent units.
These are the techniques and criteria that should be used in the phonemic interpretation of diphthongs, when determining their monophonemic or biophonemic character.
Along with diphthongs, diphthongoids should be distinguished. Diphthongoids are not actually a combination of two vowels, but one vowel beginning or ending with a foreign element. M.I. Matusevich writes about this: “A special category of vowels are sounds that are to some extent diphthongic in nature. Their essence lies in the fact that a vowel has at the beginning (or at the end) an insignificant element of another vowel that is usually close in articulation, somewhat heterogeneous in nature, but does not yet produce the impression of a diphthong. So, in Russian the vowel O usually starts with a small element at and then goes through the closed option O To open, so that it can be represented phonemically u o... There may also be diphthongoids with a glide at the end, for example e i, a vowel often obtained by people who learn to pronounce [e] closed, for example, in French or German languages” (M.I. Matusevich. Introduction to general phonetics. - L., 1948: 61).
Thus, the difference between a diphthongoid and a diphthong is that the former is a vowel with an overtone at the beginning or end, while the latter is a combination of two vowels making one syllable.
There are no diphthongs or triphthongs in the Russian language, but for English their presence is one of the characteristic features of the phonetics of the English language. Diphthongs and triphthongs are complex sounds that consist of two or three vowel tones pronounced together. There are only three triphthongs in English, and they are very rare, so in this article we will focus on diphthongs.
The first sound of a diphthong is syllabic and stressed, it is the main one, it is called the core. The second element is called glide, it is very short; when pronouncing it, the tongue very often does not even reach the position that is necessary to pronounce it.
The duration of pronunciation of the first element of a diphthong is approximately the same as that of ordinary long vowels. The other sound, as already mentioned, is very short. If the diphthong is at the end of a word, then before the pause between words it is pronounced a little drawn out. And if the next word begins with voiced consonants, then it is pronounced a little shorter. Before voiceless consonants - as briefly as possible.
Thus, in modern English the following trends are observed:
- The first sound is long
- The second sound is short, with obvious neutralization relative to phonemes.
Well, now let's move on to watching video lessons on the pronunciation of double phonemes.
As you already know, a diphthong is two sounds fused together to form one syllable, with one phoneme being slightly longer and the other being slightly shorter. Watch the video carefully, listen to the teacher and repeat all the words after the speaker. Try to copy the intonation and pronunciation of the teacher from the video as accurately as possible.
There are only eight diphthongs in English:
[ɪə]
It is pronounced like the Russian “ie”, with “i” being long and “e” being short. Indicated in writing by the following letter combinations:
- eer - deer
- ier - fierce
- ear - gear
- ere - severe
Similar to our “ue”, respectively, “u” is longer than “e”. This is what it looks like graphically:
- ure - sure
- ue - cruel
- our - tour
Pronounced "ay". Expressed in writing as follows, in an open syllable and at the end of a word:
- y - fly
- uy-guy
- ye - dye
- eye - eyebrow
- i - line
- ie - tie
- igh - knight
[ɔɪ]
Sounds like "oops". It is transmitted using the following combinations of letters:
- oy - annoy
- oi - noisy
[əu]
Similar in pronunciation to something between “ou” and “eu”. In an open syllable it is indicated by the letter “o” under stress, and by some letter combinations:
- o - bone
- ou - soul
- oa - coat
- oll-roller
- ow - snow
- old-cold
[ɛə]
It is read as an average between “ea” and “ee”, that is, the first element is exactly “e”, and the second fluctuates between “a” and “e”. Expressed through:
- ear-bear
- are - care
- air - repair
Similar to the Russian “au”, which is read together, but “a” is longer than “u”. Transmitted in writing using connections:
- ou - pound
- ow - town
It reads like “hey,” but a little softer. In an open syllable, stress is expressed by the letter “a” and the following combinations:
- a-save
- ea - great
- ai - main
- ey - gray
- ay-tray
- ei - eight
How to pronounce English triphthongs?
It is read as "aye". The sound “a” is long, and “y” and “e” are pronounced together, but briefly. The letter is conveyed as follows:
- iar-liar
- ire - fire
- iet-quiet
- yre - tire
- ier - tier
Similar to our “aue”. The letter “w” conveys the phoneme “u”, the graphic designation on the letter is as follows:
- ower - power
- our - sour
Pronounced as “yue”: pure, European. Here “y” is the longest. In writing it is expressed through combinations:
- ure - pure
- eur - European
Watch a video lecture on the pronunciation of triphthongs in English
The video explains everything simply and clearly. Therefore, make yourself comfortable and start watching educational video lectures on the pronunciation of English phonemes. Repeat until you can pronounce it like a professional speaker. Good luck!
Learning to pronounce English words again. You and I have already, and now we’ve gotten to diphthongs.
A diphthong is a combination of two vowels into one syllable (according to Ushakov’s explanatory dictionary). That is, a diphthong is a syllable consisting of two vowels.
I remind you, that the transcription reflects the sound of the word, and not its letter form.
English Diphthongs:
There are only 8 of them, and we will divide them into 3 groups to make it more convenient
- like, high, buy;
- cake, sale, fail;
- [ɔi] boy,
- where, bear, care;
- here, beer,
- poor, tour,
- cow, mouse, house;
- [əu] home, hello, rose.
So, take another look at diphthongs. They all consist of two vowel sounds. I specifically tried to select a variety of examples. Looking at these examples, you may notice that the sound and spelling of words can be very different.
It happens that it is difficult to predict how a word is read correctly just by its written form. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to check the transcription of words in the dictionary.
What are they worth? high, buy, And like! After all, they are written completely differently.
Difficult for Russian-speaking students. This is due to the fact that in English most words are read differently than they are written. In addition, there are sounds in the English language that are not in Russian, and these sounds are not easy to get used to. And sometimes these sounds are combined into diphthongs and triphthongs– phonetic units, which also do not exist in the Russian language. Let's look at what triphthongs and diphthongs are in English.
What are diphthongs and triphthongs
Diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds that are pronounced without a pause.
Triphthong is a combination of three vowel sounds, which, as in diphthongs, are pronounced without a pause.
Every diphthong and triphthong has two elements - the core and the glide. The core is the main part of a diphthong or triphthong, which is pronounced louder and clearer. And sliding is a secondary element, which you pronounce more quietly.
English diphthongs and triphthongs in the table
There are eight diphthongs in English, which can be roughly divided into three groups:
- Ending with ə : ɪə, eə, ʊə;
- Ending with ɪ : eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ;
- Ending with ʊ : əʊ, aʊ.
Triphthongs include: eɪə, aɪə, ɔɪə, əʊə, aʊə.
Diphthong table:
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| Diphthong | Pronunciation | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| eɪ | It is pronounced like the Russian “ey”, only softer and with an emphasis on the “e”. | late - late kate - kate day - day rain - rain fail - failure wait - wait |
| əʊ | An intermediate sound between the Russian “ou” and “eu”. | soap - soap road - road toast - toast soul - soul though - although shoulder - shoulder |
| ɑɪ | Similar to the Russian "ai", but with a softer "y". | dry - dry why - why by - by fight - fight light – light high - high |
| ɑʊ | It is pronounced as “ay”, with “a” being read long and “u” being short. | house - at home sound - sound plow - plow bough – branch now - now cow - cow how - how |
| ɔɪ | Similar to the Russian “oy”, only with a softer “y”. | boy - boy ploy – trick noise - noise choice - choice point - point |
| ɪə | Intermediate meaning between Russian “ie” and “ee”. | weird - strange fierce - ferocious fakir - fakir museum – museum theological - theological |
| ɛə | Intermediate meaning between Russian “ea” and “ee”. | care - care rare - rare share - share bear - bear pear - pear wear – to wear their - theirs heir - heir there - there |
| ʊə | It is pronounced like the Russian “ue”, only more drawn out, with an emphasis on “u”. | poor - poor moor – peat bog pure - pure endure – endure cure - treatment sure - sure tour – tour dour - harsh gourd - pumpkin |
Triphthong table:
Common mistakes in pronouncing diphthongs and triphthongs
Russian-speaking students are characterized by two serious mistakes when pronouncing diphthongs and triphthongs:
- Using Russian sounds instead of English diphthongs. At the first stages of acquaintance with English phonetics, the student usually associates unfamiliar English sounds with familiar Russian ones. This helps a beginner speak faster, but subsequently it is necessary to get rid of Russian sounds in English speech, since it will be more difficult to relearn.
- “Swallowing” sliding sound. Each diphthong and triphthong must be pronounced in full, pronouncing not only its core, but also other sounds. There are many similar words in the English language that are distinguished by the use of gliding words, so if you “swallow” them, you may not be understood.