Diphthongs and their use in english language

Аннотация

A diphthong ['dɪfθɒŋ], from Ancient Greek δίφθογγος – díphthongos, ‗two sounds‘, from δίς – dís – 'twice', and φθόγγος – phthóngos – 'sound', also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue and other parts of the speech apparatus, moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most varieties of English, the phrase ‗no highway cowboy‘ – [noʊ 'haɪweɪ 'kaʊbɔɪ] has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable Key words: closing, opening, and centering, falling and rising, narrow and wide, length Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word /ah/ is spoken as a monophthong [α:], while the word /ow/ is spoken as a diphthong in most varieties [aʊ]. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables, for example, in the English word /re-elect/ – [ri'ilekt] the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. The English word /hiatus/ – [ˌhaɪ'eɪtәs] is itself an example of both hiatus and diphthongs. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds – phonemes.[Borg:1997] In the International Phonetic Alphabet – IPA, monophthongs are transcribed with one symbol, as in English sun – [sʌn], in which [ʌ] represents a monophthong. Diphthongs are transcribed with two symbols, as in English high – [hai] or cow – [kaʊ], in which [ai] and [aʊ] represent diphthongs. Diphthongs may be transcribed with two vowel symbols or with a vowel symbol and a semivowel symbol. In the words above, the less prominent member of the diphthong can be represented with the symbols for the palatal approximant [j] and the labiovelar approximant [w], with the symbols for the close vowels [i] and [u], or the symbols for the near-close vowels [ɪ] and [ʊ]. Some transcriptions are broader 108 or narrower, less precise or more precise phonetically, than others. Transcribing the English diphthongs in high and cow as [aj], [aw] or [ai ], [au ] is a less precise or broader transcription, since these diphthongs usually end in a vowel sound that is more open than the semivowels [j] and [w] or the close vowels [i] and [u]. Transcribing the diphthongs as [aɪ ] and [aʊ ] is a more precise or narrower transcription, since the English diphthongs usually end in the near-close vowels [i] and [ʊ]. The non-syllabic diacritic, the inverted breve below [ ] is placed under the less prominent part of a diphthong to show that it is part of a diphthong rather than a vowel in a separate syllable: [aɪ ] and [aʊ ] [Carbonell:1992]. When there is no contrastive vowel sequence in the language, the diacritic may be omitted. Other common indications that the two sounds are not separate vowels are a superscript, [aᶦ] and[aᶷ], or a tie bar, [a ɪ] and [a ʊ] or [a ɪ] and [a ʊ]. The tie bar can be useful when it is not clear which symbol represents the syllable nucleus, or when they have equal weight.[Chițoran:2001]; [Chițoran:2002a]; [Chițoran:2002b]. Superscripts are especially used when an on-glide or off-glide is particularly fleeting [Cruz- Ferreira:1995]. The period [.] is the opposite of the non-syllabic diacritic: it represents a syllable break. If two vowels next to each other belong to two different syllables or hiatus, meaning that they do not form a diphthong, they can be transcribed with two vowel symbols with a period in between. Thus, lower can be transcribed ['loʊ.әr], with a period separating the first syllable, [loʊ], from the second syllable, [әr]. The non-syllabic diacritic is used only when necessary. It is typically omitted when there is no ambiguity, as in high – [hai] and cow – [kaʊ]. No words in English have the vowel sequences [a.ɪ] and [a.ʊ], so the non-syllabic diacritic is unnecessary. Falling or descending diphthongs start with a vowel quality of higher prominence – higher pitch or volume, and end in a semivowel with less prominence, like [aɪ ] in eye, while rising or ascending diphthongs begin with a less prominent semivowel and end with a more prominent full vowel, similar to the [ja] in yard. Sometimes, however, the terms ‗falling‘ and ‗rising‘ are used, instead, to refer to vowel height, i.e. as synonyms of the terms ‗closing‘ and ‗opening‘ [Faria:2003]. The less prominent component in the diphthong may also be transcribed as an approximant, thus [aj] in eye and [ja] in yard. However, when the diphthong is analyzed as a single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed with vowel symbols [aɪ ] and [ɪ a]. Semivowels and approximants are not equivalent in all treatments, and in the English and Italian languages, among others, many phoneticians do not consider rising combinations to be diphtho