DIPHTHONGS

By:
Siti Aminah
Yuli Dila Audhea
Rico Bontor Sitinjak
Tony Aditia

STKIP BUDIDAYA BINJAI

ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

2019
 FOREWORD

Praise and thanks authors thanks God Almighty, for blessings and mercy so
I can finished subject “The paper about Dipthongs”. The authors are grateful to
lecturer concerned that already provides guidence.

The author is also aware that the task is still many shortcomings therefore
the authors apologize if there are mistake in the writing and the authors also expect
criticism and constructive sugestions to the perfection of this task.

In clunclusion the authors thanks ,may be useful and can be add knowledge
to the reader.
 DISCUSSION

Dipthongs

The word "diphthong" comes from the Greek and means "two voices" or "two sounds."
In phonetics, a diphthong is a vowel in which there is a noticeable sound change within the
same syllable. (A single or simple vowel is known as a monophthong.) The process of moving
from one vowel sound to another is called gliding, which is why another name for a diphthong
is a gliding vowel but they are also known as compound vowels, complex vowels, or moving
vowels.

The sound change that turns a single vowel into a diphthong is called diphthongization.
Diphthongs are sometimes referred to as "long vowels" but this is misleading. While vowel
sounds do change in a diphthong, they do not necessarily take more time to say than a
monophthong.

Diphthongs in American English

How many diphthongs are there in the English language? It depends on which expert
you ask. Some sources cite eight, others as many as 10. Even syllables containing a single vowel
can contain a diphthong. The rule of thumb is: If the sound moves, it’s a diphthong; if it's static,
it’s a monophthong. Each of the following diphthongs is represented by its phonetic symbol.

1. /aɪ/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to "eye" and most often occurs with letter combinations
that include /i/, /igh/, and /y.
Examples: crime, like, lime
2. /eɪ/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to “great” and is most often used with letter
combinations that include /ey/, /ay/, /ai/ and /a/.
Examples: break, rain, weight
3. /əʊ/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to “boat” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include /ow/, /oa/ and /o/.
Examples: slow, moan, though
4. /aʊ/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to “ow!” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include /ou/ and /ow/.
Examples: brown, hound, now
5. /eə/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to “air” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include /ai/, /a/, and /ea/.
Examples: lair, stair, bear
6. /ɪə/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to “ear” and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include /ee/, /ie/ and /ea/.
Examples: beer, near, pier
7. /ɔɪ/
This creates sounds similar to “boy” and most often occurs with letter combinations that
include /oy/ and /oi/.
Examples: oil, toy, coil
8. /ʊə/
This diphthong creates sounds similar to “sure” and most occurs with letter combinations
that include /oo/, /ou/, /u/, and /ue/.

Examples: lure, pure, fur

Diphthongs in Dialects

One of the most interesting ways in which diphthongs relate to spoken language is in
how they’ve evolved into regional accents and dialects from their languages of origin. In the
borough Brooklyn, for example, when someone says, “Let the dog out,” the word dog contains
a distinctive “aw” sound so that “the dog” becomes a “dawg.”

CONCLUSION

Diphthongs also belong to the transitional phoneme category along with semi-vowels.
They are similar to vowels and have vibrating vocal folds. Diphthongs are comprised of two
vowel sounds. In their production, the vocal tract undergoes a smooth transition as the
phoneme goes from one vowel sound to another.
Temporal Characteristics:

Diphthongs are quazi-perodic but their periods look almost like two different sounds
combined. This is due to the combination of two separate sounds.

Spectral Characteristics:

Over time, as the diphthong changes from one sound to another, we see either a drop
or rise of frequencies where the previous sound did not have components. This transistion is
seemingly very smooth as the sound is perfected to be such.