Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation.

Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Topic 3: Making Speech Sounds

Unit 9 English Diphthongs

Lecture 9

The aims of Unit 9 are:

To become familiar with English diphthongs and thiphthongs

To understand how English diphthongs may be classified in

articulatory terms

To be able to explain the different types of diphthongs in RP

To know the IPA symbols

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

English Diphthongs

The English language has twenty vocalic sounds. The first twelve are
pure vowels or monophthongs because the tongue stays at one fixed
location in the mouth to produce each vowel quality. The next eight
English vocalic sounds are diphthongs. A diphthong, from Greek
diphthongs, literally "two sounds" or "two tones", is a vocalic sound in
which the speaker's tongue changes position while it is being
pronounced, so that it sounds like a combination of two other vocalic
sounds. Consequently, diphthongs are types of vowels where two
vocalic sounds are connected in a continuous, gliding motion. For this
reason, they are often referred to as gliding vowels.

There are eight English diphthongs altogether. To make diphthongs,

your tongue, lips (and your jaw on occasions!) have to move.
Sometimes the journey your tongue makes is short and very
controlled; by contrast, in some of the diphthongs, it has to move a
long distance in your mouth, involving a lot of jaw movement too.

Learners find diphthongs difficult because producing them is a motor

skill (like body building!) which has to be practised in order to obtain
a good result. You cannot succeed in English pronunciation by
understanding alone. The muscles you have to train to make English

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

diphthongs are unlikely to be identical to those you use when

producing vocalic sounds in your first language. Consequently, it is
important to know exactly what to do with the speech organs (i.e. the
position of the tongue, lip-shape and tension, size of mouth opening)
in each location and the manner and direction of the movement.

Classification of English diphthongs

According to the position of the more prominent element in the

diphthong, these may be divided into falling diphthongs, if the
prominent element comes first, and rising diphthongs, if the less
prominent element comes first. All English diphthongs belong to the
first category, namely falling diphthongs.

Falling diphthongs

/aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /eɪ/, /aʊ/, /əʊ/

We can also differentiate between wide diphthongs, those in which

the glide implies a more radical movement of the speech organs, and
narrow diphthongs, if the two vocalic elements occupy neighbouring
positions in the vowel chart.

Wide diphthongs

/aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/

Narrow diphthongs

/ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/, /eɪ/

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

There are also closing diphthongs, if the glide is from an open or half
open vowel in the vowel chart to a close vowel, and centring
diphthongs, if the glide is from a marginal vowel in the vowel chart,
either back or front, to a central vowel.

Closing diphthongs

/eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/

/aʊ/, /əʊ/
Centring diphthongs

/ɪə/, /ʊə/, /eə/

Figure 1. Chart of English diphthongs

Articulatory description of diphthongs

/eɪ/ as in day, pay, say, lay. The starting position is /e/ with
tongue in mid position at front of mouth as in egg, bed or Ted.
Therefore, you move the tongue up to make the diphthong.

/aɪ/, as in sky, buy, cry, tie. The starting position is /ɑː/, the same
sound as in car or the noise ah which you make when you open your
mouth at the dentist's. To make the diphthong you need a big jaw
movement, less opening as you move the tongue up and front.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

/ɔɪ/ as in boy, toy, coy or the first syllable of soya. The starting
position is /ɔ:/, the sound in door or cord. Your tongue needs to be
low, but you need to pull it back and make your mouth round. To
make the diphthong, you relax the lip rounding and move your
tongue forward and up.

/əʊ/ as in oh, no, so or phone. The starting position is the neutral

vowel sound, also known as "shwa" /ə/, which sounds like a grunt,
as in the weak form of the or a. To start in this way, the tongue
should be fixed in mid central position in your mouth with lips
relaxed. To make the diphthong, it is a short controlled movement
from the centre to the back moving your relaxed lips into a tighter
small round aperture. Your cheeks should move in a bit!

/aʊ/ as in all the words of How now brown cow! The starting
position is the vowel sound /æ/, as in bad or rat with tongue front
but also low, i.e. mouth open. To make the diphthong the journey for
your tongue from front low, mouth very open, to back high (small
tight mouth aperture) is a very long trip. Your jaw will move a lot too.

/ɪə/ as in beer, pier, hear. The starting position is /ɪ/ as in if or pit

with tongue front and high and lips relaxed.

/eə/ as in bear, pair and hair. The starting position is /e/ as in

egg or bed with tongue in mid position at front of mouth. To make
the diphthong, using a small controlled movement, pull your tongue
slightly back from mid front to the mid central position in your mouth.

/ʊə/ as in tour, poor (talking posh!) or the first syllable of tourist.

The starting position is /ʊ/ with tongue pulled back but small mouth
aperture as in hook, book or look. To make the diphthong, this time
the small controlled tongue movement goes from the back position to
the mid central position, losing the lip rounding and relaxing your
mouth from the tight starting position.

English Triphthongs

A triphthong is a combination of three vocalic sounds in a single

syllable, forming a simple or compound sound; also, a union of three
vowel characters, representing together a single sound:

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

/eɪə/ as in player, layer, stayers

/aɪə/ as in tyre, fire, higher, shire, flier,
/ɔɪə/ as in employer, soya
/aʊə/ as in power, shower, how are, tower, flour, flower
/əʊə/ as in slower, lower, blower

If you find it hard to remember the different English diphthongs,

looking at the picture below will help you to refresh your memory.

poor /pʊə(r)/
boy /bɔɪ/
hair /heə/
face /feɪs/
eyes /aɪz/
ears /ɪə(r)z/
mouth /maʊð/
nose /nəʊz/

Web references
http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/diphthongs.html
http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/practice-diphthongs

Seminar 1

Read the text above carefully and answer the following

questions:

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

1. What is a monophthong? Illustrate your answer with twelve

examples.

2. What is a diphthong? Illustrate your answer with eight examples.

3. What is a triphthong? Illustrate your answer with five examples.

4. Why is it difficult for students of English to pronounce diphthongs?

5. In order to learn the pronunciation of English diphthongs, we need

to…

6. Which linguistic parameters are used to classify English

diphthongs?

7. According to the position of the more prominent vocalic element in

the diphthong, diphthongs may be classified into…

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

8. According to the distance between the two vocalic elements,

diphthongs may be classified into…

9. According to the glide movement, diphthongs may be classified

into…

10. Summarize the main contents of the reading passage above in

the box below (250 words).

Seminar 2

Phonemic transcription

1. Watch the videos that explain the pronunciation of the

vowel sounds /ɒ/, /ɔ:, /əʊ/ and /ɑː/ vs /ʌ/ (review Unit 8)
and practice their pronunciation.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Figure 2. The English phonemic chart

Phonemic transcription
Transcribe the following sentences using the phonemic chart.

1. My father can’t park his car in the yard

2. The last match was on a dark afternoon last March

3. Among the pots I spotted a frog.

4. My father was born in a dark barn at dawn.

5. I’ve heard that the brook is full of pearls.

6. The full moon shone on the girl’s pearls.

7. When he saw the ghost, he thought he’d fall.

8. The brook was full when I took a look.

9. The shop is locked at five o’clock.

10. You can’t go far in this car in March.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

/maɪ 'fɑ:ðə 'kænt pɑ:k hɪz kɑ: ɪn ðə jɑ:(r)d//

/ðe lɑ:st mæʧ wɒz ɒn ə dɑ:k ɑ:ftə'nu:n lɑ:st mɑ:ʧ//
/ə'mʌŋ ðe pɒts aɪ 'spɒtɪd ə frɒg//
/maɪ 'fɑ:ðə wɒz bƆ:(r)n ɪn ə dɑ:k bɑ:n æt dƆ:n//
/aɪv hɜ:d ðæt ðe brʊk ɪz fʊl ɒv pɜ:lz//
/ðe fʊl mu:n ʃəʊn (ʃɒn) ɒn ðe gɜ:lz pɜ:lz//
/wen hi: sƆ: ðe gəʊst/hi: θƆ:t hɪd fƆ:l//
/ðe brʊk wɒz fʊl wen ɑɪ tʊk ə lʊk//
/ðe ʃɒp ɪz lɒkt ət faɪv ə'klɒk//
/ju: kænt gəʊ fɑ: ɪn ðɪs kɑ: ɪn mɑ:ʧ//

Seminar 3
Practice reading the sentences from Seminar 2.
When you feel you are ready, record your oral
reading of the sentences and then upload it to
Moodle.

References

Hancock, M. 2003. English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, D. 2006. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th
Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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