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MAIOR EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES. 2020
2016-17
2019
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY / Main H-O Unit 3

UNIT 3: ENGLISH VOWELS & DIPHTHONGS

3. 1. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION OF VOWELS

 Definition:

Phonetic criterion: vocoid sounds  no obstruction or constriction in mouth. But: /r/ &
semivowels. So we need:

Functional or phonological criterion: the vowel is the nucleus of syllable vs. consonant >
marginal position (either pre-nuclear or post-nuclear)
Therefore: Vowels -> sounds which are vocoid and function as syllabic nuclei.

 Description:
Key factor in description of vowels: tongue position, difficult to describe.
Three main questions in vowel description >> different features:
1. How high is the tongue? >> close (high) / half-close / half-open / open (low)
2. What part of the tongue is involved? >> front / central / back
3. What is the shape of the lips? >> open, spread, rounded

Other important distinctions:

-peripheral (taking tongue to the periphery of vocalic articulation) / centralised (articulated

between the central vocalic area and the periphery)
-long / short
-tense / lax (see  and  below)

Area in the mouth in which vowels

are produced by the changing shape
of the tongue. The chart (trapezium)
is a regularized representation of this
area
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The following diagrams show the articulation of Spanish and English monophthongs: NOTE: the
diagrams only show the differences in tongue position. They do not provide information about lip
position, length or tension.

The 12 English vowels:

1. /  / as in eat 2. /  / as in it 3. /  / as in bed 4. /  / as in cat

5. /  / as in cart 6. /  / as in lot 7. /  / as in all 8. /  / as in put

9. /  / as in soon 10. /  / as in cut 11. /  / as in bird 12. /  / as in brother

3. 2. ENGLISH PURE VOWELS

VOWEL no. 1 / 

Description: peripheral, front, almost fully close, tense, long unrounded vowel with
spread lips.

Spelling & examples:

"ee" "e" "ea" "ie" "ei" "ey" "i"
-tree, see, cheese, sweet
-complete, be, these, Peter, even, decent, legal, extreme
-leaf, reason, sea, meat, teach, read, bean
-piece, field, siege, brief, achieve
-seize, receive, ceiling, key
-machine, police, prestige, suite, unique
exceptional: quay, people, Caesar, Phoenix, foetus
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VOWEL no. 2 \I\

Description: centralised, front, almost half-close, lax, short, unrounded vowel with
loosely spread lips.
Notes:
-\I\ traditionally called "short \I\". But main difference between \iÜ\ and \I\ is
one of tension: \iÜ\ is peripheral, pronounced by tensing the muscles of mouth
and tongue, and tensely spread lips > tense; \I\ is centralized, the tongue is
more relaxed and lips not so spread > lax.
This difference becomes crucial in cases of pre-fortis clipping.
So real difference, in quality (tension, centralization and closing) rather than
in quantity (not always applicable).
Compare: seat - sit seat - seed
Spelling & examples:
"i" "y" "e" "ie" "a"
-sit, with, rich, miss
-rhythm, symbol, mystic, Syria, crystal, cynical, physics
-pretty, England, needed, except, careless, houses, television
-sieve
-village, private, courage
exceptional: build, guilt, busy, minute, women, biscuit, lettuce, fountain,
mountain

ü \iÜ - I\ contrasted: feel - fill; seen - sin ; bead - bid ; lead - lid;
cheap - chip ; beat - bit; heap - hip ; steal - still; heal - hill

VOWEL no. 3 \e\

Description: peripheral, front, between half-open and half-close, short,

unrounded vowel with loosely spread lips.
Notes: -it is relatively close to Spanish /e/.
Spelling & examples:
"e" "ea" "a" "ai" "ay"
-set, bed, fell, every.
-dead, head, meant, lead, threat, sweat, deaf, read (past), health, breast,
ready, weather, pleasant, jealous, bread
-many, ate, any
-says, said, again
exceptional: friend, bury, burial, Leicester, jeopardy, leopard, Geoffrey
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ü Distinguish \iÜ\ - \I\- \e\:

neat - knit - net seeks - six - sex feel - fill - fell
read - rid - red least - list - lest deed - did - dead

[See Practice H-O: Practising \iÜ\ - \I\- \e\ ]

VOWEL no. 4 \œ\

Description: peripheral, front, between half-open and open, short, unrounded
vowel with neutrally open lips.
Notes:
-this vowel has recently become more open than it used to be.
-Noticeably lengthened by most speakers before voiced consonants, eg.
/b,d,g,dʒ,m,n/

Spelling & examples: "a"

-sat, hand, lamp, marry
-exceptional: "ai": plait, plaid

ü Distinguish \I\- \e\- \œ\:

bid - bed - bad big - beg - bag
tin - ten - tan miss - mess - mass

VOWEL no. 10 \ø\

Description: front-central, centralized, between open and half-open, short,
unrounded vowel with neutrally open lips.
Notes:
-Spanish learners: careful to produce a completely unrounded vowel,
particularly with spelling "o".
Spelling & examples:
"u" "o" "ou"
-sun, cut, dull, bus, bucket, just
-son, come, among, one, done, colour, some, love, mother, brother, stomach,
monk, tongue, money, front, won, honey, London
-country, southern, enough, young, rough, touch, double, tough
exceptional: blood, flood, does

ü \œ\ - \ø\ contrasted: cat - cut match - much hat - hut

[See Practice H-O: Transcribing /i…/ - /I/- /e/ - /œ/ - /ø/]
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VOWEL no. 5 \AÜ\

Description: peripheral, almost fully back, open, long, unrounded vowel with
neutrally open lips.
Notes:
-cases of hesitation between \AÜ\ and \œ\ in RP: lather, plastic, elastic, transfer (all
words with prefix trans-), alas, asp, ass mass, drastic, masculine, Basque, and
suffix -graph.
-Many words containing \AÜ\ have \œ\ in American English: last, raft, half, laugh,
bath, pass, sample, France, plant, after.
-Spanish learners: this vowel must be retracted; exaggerate retraction by moving
in the direction of \Å\ and then make sure you distinguish \AÜ\ - \Å\ Eg.:
card - cod heart - hot lark - lock
cart - cot calf- cough impassable - impossible
Spelling & examples:
"a" "ar" "al" (<silent 'l') "au"
-pass, father, after, branch, camouflage, chance, advance, vast, drama,
tomato, vase
-part, car, march, start, market
-calm, palm, half
-aunt, laugh
exceptional: "ear": heart, hearth
"er": clerk, Derby, sergeant
"-oir" = /wAÜ/ in recent French borrowings: reservoir, boudoir,
conservatoir

VOWEL no. 6 \Å\

Description: peripheral, back, almost fully open, short, slightly rounded vowel.
Notes:
-avoid confusion with /AÜ/ by giving \Å\ appropriate lip-rounding (main difference
between them, together with length). (see minimal pairs in V.n. 5)
-this vowel shows no lip-rounding in American English, so bomb and balm have
both /AÜ/ in this variety.
-General hesitation between \Å\ and /OÜ/ in Australia, Austria, fault, salt.
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Spelling & examples:

"o" "(w+)a"; "ou" "ow"; "au" "aw"
-dock, pot, cost, sorry, gone, column, often, lot, volume
-was, what, swan, watch, wasp, quality, quantity
-cough, trough, knowledge
-because, sausage, laurel, cauliflower, Lawrence
exceptional: yacht
Notice wax has \œ\
ü \Å\ - \ø\ contrasted: hot - hut wander - wonder

VOWEL no. 7 /OÜ/

Description: peripheral, back, between half-open and half-close, long, fully

rounded vowel.
Notes:
-Spanish learners: don't make this vowel a Spanish \o\; the English vowel is
rather closer.

Spelling & examples:

"or" "aw" "ou" "au" "a"; "ore" 'oor" "oar" "our"
-cord, horse, sword, born, story, chorus
-saw, lawn, jaw, yawn, law, awkward
-bought, ought
-daughter, cause, taught, sauce, author
-all, talk, walk, chalk, water, war, quart, fall, small, bald, always
-before, more, door, floor, oar, board, court, four
exceptional: broad, abroad, sure, drawer, Sean

ü \Å\ - /OÜ/ contrasted: cod - cord don - dawn stock - stalk/stork

ü \OÜ\ - /´U/ contrasted: cord - code called - cold born - bone

VOWEL no. 8 \U\

Description: centralized, back, between close and half-close, lax, short, fully
rounded vowel.
Notes:
-This vowel almost mirrors the articulation of \I\ in the back region.
-The phonetic differences between \U\ and \uÜ\ are the same as between \I\ and
\iÜ\: -\U\ >> more "open", lax, centralized (but high).
-\uÜ\ >> closer, tenser, peripheral
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They will be distinguished sometimes by quality and quantity (good - food),

sometimes by quality alone (foot - boot).

Spelling & examples:

"u" "o" "oo" "ou"
-put, full, sugar, cushion, butcher, bush
-wolf, woman, bosom
-good, book, wood, wool, stood, took, look, cook, foot, shook, hood
-could, would, should
exceptional: Worcester, worsted

ü /U/ - /OÜ/ contrasted: could - cord wood - ward

VOWEL no. 9 \uÜ\

Description: peripheral, back, almost fully close, tense, long, fully rounded vowel.
Notes:
-\uÜ\ - \juÜ\ variation possible when preceded by /l s z θ/ e.g.: lute, suit,
enthusiasm

Spelling & examples:

"oo" "o" "ou"; "u" "eu" "ew' "ue" "ui" (often prec. by /j/); "oe"

-food, soon, moon, spoon

-do, who, move, lose, prove, tomb
-group, soup, through, youth
-rude, tune, mule, huge, amuse, assume, usage, nude, music, duke
-neutral, neuter, euphemism, chew, dew, new, few, Jew, knew, true, blue,
due, argue, fruit, juice, nuisance
-shoe, canoe
exceptional: beauty, beautiful, manoeuvre

ü /U/ - \uÜ\ contrasted: full - fool wood - wooed

VOWEL no. 11 \‰
Ü :/

Description: mid-central, between half-open and half-close, long, unrounded

vowel with neutrally spread lips.
Notes:
-It is the only accented vowel in the central area. The other central vowel, \´\, is
weak. Compare: were \'w‰Ü :/ >> \w´/; amateur /'œm´,t‰Ü :/ >> /'œm´t´/
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-Common origin of this vowel: the centralization of a peripheral vowel followed by

/r/ >> virtually represented by any vowel letter followed by a silent "r".
Spelling & examples:
"ir" "yr"; "er"; "err" "ear" "ur" "urr"; "(w+)or"; "our"
-bird, girl, first, myrtle, shirt, virtue
-her, serve, term, person, expert, err, earth, heard, hearse, earn
-turn, church, nurse, purr, hurt, murder, survey
-word, work, world, worse, worth, worm, attorney
-journey, courtesy, scourge
exceptional: colonel
note: "-eur" = \‰ Ü :/ in French borrowings: liqueur, masseur, connoisseur
ü \‰Ü :/ - \ø\ contrasted: bird - bud fern - fun burn - bun

VOWEL no. 12 \´\

Description: mid-central, between half-open and half-close, short, unrounded

vowel with neutral lips; always unstressed.
Notes:
-Most frequent of all English vowels (it has historically replaced many other
unstressed vowels in English).
-But restricted distribution: it can only appear in unaccented syllables.
-Two principal realisations:
-a half-open (approx.) in final position: mother, sailor, sofa
-a half-close (approx.) in other contexts: about, callous, affect
-It is mostly distinguished from \‰ Ü/ in quantity (short vs long) and stress
(unstressed vs stressed).

Spelling & examples:

any vowel grapheme
-gentleman, sofa, alive, adapt, appear
-gentlemen, emperor
-impossible, April
-oblige, second, commercial, propose, pilot
-suppose, suggest, column, maximum
-particular, mother, doctor, emperor, murmur, theatre, figure, villain, surgeon,
vengeance, parliament, region, tortoise
-behaviour, favour, honour
-obvious, glorious, notorious

\´\ - \I\ contrasted: affect - effect accept - except officers - offices

[See Practice H-O: More vowel practice]
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3. 3. ENGLISH DIPHTHONGS

• Definition of Diphthong: two vocalic elements that come together within the
same syllable. They consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another
[remember the semivowels are glides too, as their articulation doesn’t have a
fixed point, it’s a movement of the tongue].
• 1st element is the starting point / 2nd element [ɪ, ʊ, ə] marks general
direction of the glide (respectively indicated with a dot and an arrow in the
diagrams below).
• Depending on the direction of the glide, diphthongs may be classified as
closing –the glide involves a movement to a higher position than the starting
point, and the jaw closes too– or centring –the glide is a movement from a
more peripheral position towards the centre of the vowel area–.
• In RP English, the 2nd element is weaker than the 1st one: it’s shorter and less
loud and it carries less stress, so RP diphthongs are falling (vs. rising).
• Diphthongs may be wide –the glide is a wide sweeping movement of the
tongue and the closing of the lower jaw is very obvious– or narrow –involving
little tongue movement–.
• In transcription a diphthong is marked by a combination of 2 vocalic symbols,
which doesn’t mean they have the same value in a diph as when they
represent a pure vowel.

• There are 8 diphthongs in RP, grouped as follows:

CENTRING CLOSING

ENDING IN \I\ ENDING IN \U\

ENDING IN \´\
\´\ \´\

ɪəә eəә ʊəә eɪ aɪ ɔɪ əәʊ aʊ

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• Diphthongs gliding towards \I\

1) \eI\
Description: Closing diphthong. 1st
element starts between front half-
open and half-close ps., and glides
towards area of \I\ with a closing of
the lower jaw. Lips spread.

Notes:
The glide is so short (narrow diphth.),
and so is the arrow, it may be difficult
to distinguish the diph (realised as
monophth. in some dialects).

Spelling & examples:

"a"; "ai" "ay"; "ei(gh)" "ey"; "ea"

-ape, late, make, cake, lady, space, face, date

-rail, rain, vain, remain, available, day, may, say
-vein, rein, eight, weight, obey, they
-great, steak, break, Reagan
exceptional: halfpenny, gauge, gaol, precis, cafe

2) \aI\

Description: Closing diphthong. 1st

element almost fully open towards the
front, then glides towards position of \I\.
Clear example of a wide diphthong.

Notes:
-The glide is so long that some people
don’t finish it in area of \I\ but at a lower
point.
-Careful not to take the glide towards \i…\,
this diph. must not end tensely nor very
close (this applies to all closing diph in
general).
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Spelling & examples:

"i" "y"; "(e)igh"; "ie" "ye"; "ei" "ai"

-time, fine, write, cry, by, type, rhyme

-high, sight, fight, height, sleight
-die, lie, dye
-(n)either, aisle
exceptional: eye, buy, isle, maestro
note: "i" >> always \aI\ when followed by another vowel: society,
science, biology, quiet

3) \OI\

Description: Closing diphthong. Starting

point at half-open pos. at the back (it
may be a little closer or a little more
open). Glide in the direction of \I\. Slight
lip-rounding at the start, which is reduced
through the articulation, so lips are
neutral at the end.
Notes:
-Since the glide is so long, few speakers
carry it all the way through to \I\.
-This diph is not just closing: the glide
also moves forward, from a back to a
front position.

Spelling & examples:

"oi" "oy"
-join, voice, adroit, coin, noise
-boy, toy, coy
exceptional: buoy

• Diphthongs gliding towards /U/

Description: Closing diphthong. It starts
4) /´U/ at a central area and glides towards /U/,
the lower jaw closing slightly and the lips
moving from neutral to rounded position.

Notes:
-Initial area of articulation is very
extensive, so this dipthong has several
variants.
-Practice by starting on \‰Ü :/ and then
moving to /U/. Ex. fur > foe; girl > goal,
burn > bone…
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Spelling & examples:

"o" "oa" "oe" "ou(gh)" "ow"
-so, old, both, hotel, hold, folk, home, sold
-soap, oak, toast, road, coat, moan
-toe, foe, hoe
-soul, though, dough, shoulder
-blow, sow, know, own
exceptional: mauve, brooch, sew (= sow), don't, won't; and French
loanwords: beau, bureau

ü /´U/ - /OÜ/ contrasted: so - saw pose - pause bold - bald

woke - walk load - lord boat - bought choke-chalk coal - call

5) /aU/

Description: Closing diphthong. Starting

point: almost fully open at the back, then
gliding towards /U/, rarely reaching it.
Jaw-closing movement quite noticeable.
Lips change from neutrally open to
weakly rounded position.

Notes:
-Do not take the glide all the way to /U/.

Spelling & examples:

"ou(gh)" "ow"

-house, sound, about, pronounce, out, drought

-allow, now, fowl, down, town
note: Saudi (Arabia)
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• Diphthongs gliding towards \´\

Description: Centring diphthong. It begins

6) /I´/ in the region of /I/ and glides towards the
half-open or half-close variety of /´/,
depending on whether it is final (beer) or
appears in a closed syllable (beard) (see
realisations of /´/). It involves an opening
of the jaw and lowering of the tongue. Lips
are neutral, with a very slight movement
from spread to open.
Notes:
-It is easy to confuse it with \iÜ\ in certain
contexts.

Spelling & examples: contestts

"eer" "ear" "ere"; "ier" "(e)ir"; "ea" "ia"; "eu" "eo"; "e"

-cheer, deer, dear, fear, beard, ear, mere, here, sincere

-fierce, cashier, weird, fakir
-idea, Korea, European, real, Ian
-museum, colosseum, theological
-hero, period, serious, mysterious, material, series
note: year /jI´/ - /j‰
Ü :/

7) /e´/

Description: Centring diphthong. It begins

in the region of the half-open front pos.
and glides towards the open variety of /´/,
ie, towards the centre. Lip position doesn’t
change from neutrally open.

Notes:
-No real tongue or jaw movement and
glide is small, so quality of the vowel very
similar at the beginning & at the end.
-Don’t allow it to become a monothphong
Spelling & examples: (fair vs. fur)
"are" "air" "ear"

-share, scare, rare, aware, fare, dare

-air, fair, pair, chair, dairy
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-bear, pear, wear, tear

exceptional: parents, scarce, heir, area, Mary, Sarah, vary (& various,
variable), prayer , mayor, canary, aquarium, Pharaoh; there & their,
they're

8) /U´/ Description: Centring diphthong. Starting point

at /U/ + centring & lowering towards /´/, in both
variants. Lips change from weakly rounded to
neutral.

Notes:
-Sometimes difficult to distinguish from \uÜ\.
-This diph. is likely to disappear in the future as
speakers drop 1st element to lowered position
and realise /O´/ or directly /OÜ/. ex. poor, sure,
moor. The loss of the diphthong would mean an
increase in homophony, with the same
pronunciation for groups like: pore, pour, paw,
poor; sure, shore, Shaw.

Spelling & examples:

"oor" "ure" "ur" "ewer" "our"
-poor, moor
-endure, pure, cure, sure, lure
-curious, furious, during, plural, security
-fewer, sewer, skewer
-tour, gourd, tourist
exceptional: jewel, fluent, truant, Europe

3. 4. ENGLISH TRIPHTHONGS

• Closing diphthongs – /eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, əәʊ, aʊ/ – have something else in common:
in principle each of them may be followed by a schwa, thus producing a
triphthong, ie, a monosyllabic element of three Vs:
/eI´/: player, greyer, layer
/aI´/: fire, iron, tyre, choir
/OI´/: employer, loyal, royal
/´U´/: slower, (lawn-)mower
/aU´/: hour, sour, tower, nowadays, power, flower
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• Although these English triphthongs have a phonological entity (are

separate phonemes), from a phonetic point of view they are very often
reduced to combinations of two vocalic elements, i.e. they are commonly
realised as phonetic diphthongs (the middle element is suppressed) :
/eI´/ >> [e´] /aI´/ >> [a´]

In any case, triphthongs are phonologically maintained in our analysis; we will

consider these reductions as realisations and not as phonemic entities.

***********************************
Reading assignment:

ROACH, P. 2009:
Chapter 2: "The production of speech sounds":
2.2. Vowel and consonant
2.3. English short vowels
Chapter 3: "Long vowels, diphthongs and tripthongs":
3.1. Long and short vowels
3.2. Diphthongs
3.3. Triphthongs

MOTT 2005
Chapter 3. "The classification of speech sounds":
3.2. The classification of vowels
3.3. Diphthongs
Chapter 5: "The English phonological system":
5.2. The English vowels.
5.3. The English Diphthongs
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SPELLING GUIDELINES

CONSONANTS

Values for single consonant letters

The following have one sound value only, but those in column 2 can also have
a "zero" value (i.e. be silent):
1. 2.
d /d/ t /t/
f /f/ r /r/
v /v/ b /b/
z /z/ k /k/
j /dʒ/ l /l/
m /m/ p /p/
y /j / w /w/
h /h/
n /n/

The following single consonant letters can have two or more sound values:
c /k/ /s/ (& rarely /tʃ /: cello , concerto )
g /g/ /dʒ/ (& rarely /ʒ/: garage, prestige, rouge )

Composite consonant letters

Double consonant letters keep the same value as single consonant letters:
bb /b/ dd /d/
pp /p/ tt /t/
ff /f/ gg /g/ or /dʒ/
ss /s/ (in a few exceptions: /z/) zz /z/
rr /r/ ll /l/
nn /n/ cc /k/ (or /ks/: accept )

The following composite consonant letters have only one sound value:
(The letters only (Never in final p.) (Both final & initial)
occur finally)
ck /k/ wh /w/ (except in "who") ph /f/
le /l/ qu /k(w)/ sh /ʃ /
tch /tʃ /
ng /ŋ/

Two composite letters can have two possible sound values or more:
ch /tʃ / /k/ (but when final, always /tʃ /)
gh /f/ "silence" /g/ (/g/only in initial position)
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VOWELS

Single vowel letters in monosyllabic words

Each of the single vowel letters "a e i o u" has two principal sound values:
Letter Sound 1 Sound 2
a \eI\ \œ\
e \iÜ\ \e\
i \aI\ \I\
o /´U/ \Å\
u \juÜ\ \ø\- \U\

To decide which of its two possible sounds a letter in a word stands for, we
must look at what letters follow the vowel letter in the word. We can find three
patterns:

a) If the single vowel letter is followed by a single consonant letter, then the
vowel sound will be the one in column 2: hat, hop, bat, pet, kit, not, cut, red, etc.
b) If the single vowel letter is followed by two consonant letters, it will also
have the sound in column two: rest, must, cost, film, cross, bulb, knock, etc.
(In RP there is also the value \AÜ\ for letter "a" in this pattern: past, half, etc.;
but if it is followed by a double consonant letter, then the value of "a" is \œ\:
canning, fatten, etc.)
c) If the single vowel letter is followed by a consonant and a final "silent" letter
"e", the single vowel letter will represent the sound in column 1: hate, Pete, mine,
note, cute, joke, home, cake, side, mute, etc. This is the "silent e" rule which
English children learn at school: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does
the talking".
The above rules only apply to stressed vowels. Of course, there are some
exceptions to these rules, and they should be learnt separately.

Single vowels in polysyllabic words

In words with suffixes in which the letter "i" is followed by a vowel (eg. -ious),
we can predict the pronunciation of the vowel letter in the stressed syllable, which
is always the syllable preceding the suffix:
when a single vowel letter (in the stressed syllable) is followed by two
consonants it has its "short" (column 2) value; when it is followed by one
consonant, it has its "long" (column 1) value.
This applies only to the single letters "a, e, o, u". It does not work with "i" in
the stressed syllable.
Eg.: 1 2
nation action
depletion congestion
notion option
dubious production
But "i": provision = subscription
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This rule works with the following suffixes:

-ion -ial -ious -ian -ia -iar -io -ior -ium- ius -iate
-ient -iant -iary -iable

With suffix -ity, the vowel in the syllable preceding the suffix is "short":
profanity, divnity, verbsity, ferocity. (Exceptions: obesity, amenity, both with /i:/)

Finally, a stressed vowel "i" followed by another vowel is "long" (value 1):
variety, drier, etc.

Vowel digraphs

Unlike single vowel letters, they do not change their value in stressed or
unstressed position (cph. neutral -neutrality or cause-causality ). Each digraph has
one major value, and often some minor values, some of which may occur in very
common words. The following list provides the major and minor values of some
English vowel digraphs, and some possible positional restrictions. It is only meant
to be indicative and there are, of course, some exceptions to it:

Digraph Major value Minor value(s) Restrictions

au/aw \OÜ\ \AÜ\ or \œ\ "au" not final

\Å\ "aw" final p.
ai/ay \eI\ /e/ "ai"not final
\œ\\aI\(exceptionally) "ay" final
\iÜ\(exceptionally)
ea \iÜ\ \eI\ /e/ /I´/ before "l" & -sure: /e/
ee \iÜ\
ei/ey \eI\ \aI\ \iÜ\ "ei"not final
"ey" final
eu/ew /(j)u:/ /I´/
/´U/ (exceptionally)
ie \aI\ \iÜ\ /e/ (exceptionally) if final: \aI\
\I\ (exceptionally) non-final: \iÜ\
oa /´U/ \OÜ\
oe /´U/ \iÜ\
\uÜ\ \ø\ (exceptionally)
oi/oy \OI\ "oi" not final
"oy" final
oo \uÜ\ \U\ \ø\
ui \juÜ\ \I\
ou/ow /aU/ \ø\ \Å\ /´U/ \uÜ\ \OÜ\ \U\ (<exceptionally)
(this particular digraph may be considered as unpredictable)