Dictionary Definition
diphthong n : a vowel sound that starts near the
articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position
for another
User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
Translations
a complex vowel sound
joined vowels pronounced as one
Derived terms
See also
Extensive Definition
In phonetics, a diphthong (also
gliding vowel) (from Greek
δίφθογγος, "diphthongos", literally "with two sounds" or "with two
tones") is a contour
vowel—that is, a unitary
vowel that changes quality
during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue
from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy,
and cow. This contrasts with "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, where the
tongue is held still, as in the English word papa.
Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are
run together in rapid speech. However, there are also unitary
diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by
listeners as single vowel sounds (phonemes).
In the International Phonetic
Alphabet, pure vowels are transcribed with one letter, as in
English "sum" [sʌm]. Diphthongs are
transcribed with two letters, as in English "eye" [aɪ̯] or "same" [seɪ̯m].
The two vowel symbols are chosen to represent the beginning and
ending positions of the tongue, though this can be only
approximate. The diacritic }} is placed under the less prominent component to show that
it is part of a diphthong rather than a separate vowel, though it
is sometimes left off in languages such as English, where there is
not likely to be any confusion. (That is, in precise
transcription,
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
allophone, alveolar, apico-alveolar,
apico-dental, articulation, aspiration, assimilation, bilabial, cacuminal, cerebral, check, consonant, continuant, dental, dissimilation, epenthetic
vowel, explosive,
glide, glottal, glottalization, guttural, labial, labialization, labiodental, labiovelar, laryngeal, lateral, lingual, liquid, manner of articulation,
modification,
monophthong,
morphophoneme,
mute, nasal, occlusive, palatal, parasitic vowel,
peak, pharyngeal, pharyngealization,
phone, phoneme, plosive, prothetic vowel,
retroflex, segmental
phoneme, semivowel,
sonant, sonority, speech sound,
stop, surd, syllabic nucleus, syllabic
peak, syllable,
transition sound, triphthong, velar, vocable, vocalic, vocoid, voice, voiced sound, voiceless
sound, voicing, vowel