Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A centering diphthong is one that begins with a more peripheral vowel and ends with a more central one, such as [ɪə̯], [ɛə̯], and [ʊə̯] in Received Pronunciation or [iə̯] and [uə̯] in Irish. Many centering diphthongs are also opening diphthongs ([iə̯], [uə̯]). Diphthongs may contrast in how far they open or close.
In Old English, two forms of harmonic vowel breaking occurred: breaking and retraction and back mutation.. In prehistoric Old English, breaking and retraction changed stressed short and long front vowels i, e, æ to short and long diphthongs spelled io, eo, ea when followed by h or by r, l + another consonant (short vowels only), and sometimes w (only for certain short vowels): [3]
Diphthongs are typically specified with a non-syllabic diacritic, as in ui̯ or u̯i , or with a superscript for the on- or off-glide, as in uⁱ or ᵘi . Sometimes a tie bar is used: u͜i , especially when it is difficult to tell if the diphthong is characterized by an on-glide or an off-glide or when it is variable. Notes
The major characteristic of the Southern drawl is vowel breaking: the shifting of a monophthong into a diphthong or even a triphthong.In the Southern accent, the short front vowels /æ/, /ɛ/, and /ɪ/ may be somewhat raised (or become an up-gliding diphthong, or both) before finally centralizing towards a schwa-like off-glide [ə].
The diphthongs /juː/ or /ɪʊ̯/ are most commonly indicated by the spellings eu, ew, uCV (where C is any consonant and V is any vowel), ue and ui, as in feud, few, mute, cue and suit, while the historical monophthong /uː/ is commonly indicated by the spellings oo and ou, as in moon and soup.
The diphthong /aʊ/ is [aʊ~äʊ], and /oʊ/ remains a back vowel, as does /u/ after non-coronal consonants (unlike the rest of the country). Indeed, in part of the North (much of Wisconsin and Minnesota), /u/ remains back in all environments. Where the Southeast has /ɔ/ the single word on, the North has /ɑ/.
Diphthongs and long vowels are analyzed as being sequences of two vowels. For example, the written form au is phonemically /au/, and the written form ā is phonemically /aa/. The maximum figure of 25 is reached by counting separately the 5 short vowels, the 5 long vowels, the 9 short diphthongs, and the 6 long diphthongs.
The falling diphthong /ɪw/ of due and dew changed to a rising diphthong, which became the sequence [juː]. The change did not occur in all dialects, however; see Yod-dropping. The diphthongs /əɪ/ and /əʊ/ of tide and house widened to /aɪ/ and /aʊ/, respectively. The diphthong /ʊɪ/ merged into /əɪ/ ~ /aɪ/.