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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.
The vowels of FLEECE and GOOSE are commonly pronounced as narrow diphthongs, approaching [ɪi] and [ʊu], in RP. Near-RP speakers may have particularly marked diphthongization of the type [əi] and [əu ~ əʉ], respectively. In General American, the pronunciation varies between a monophthong and a diphthong. [43]
A monophthong (/ ˈ m ɒ n ə f θ ɒ ŋ, ˈ m ɒ n ə p-/ MON-əf-thong, MON-əp-; from Ancient Greek μονόφθογγος (monóphthongos) 'one sound', [1] from μόνος (mónos) 'single' and φθόγγος (phthóngos) 'sound') is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at only beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of ...
Monophthongization is a sound change by which a diphthong becomes a monophthong, a type of vowel shift. It is also known as ungliding , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] as diphthongs are also known as gliding vowels. In languages that have undergone monophthongization, digraphs that formerly represented diphthongs now represent monophthongs.
Most dialects of English turn /iː/ into a diphthong, and the monophthongal is in free variation with the diphthongal [ɪi ~ əi] (with the former diphthong being the same as Geordie [ei], the only difference lying in the transcription [citation needed]), particularly word-internally. However, diphthongs are more common word-finally.
The diphthong /aw/ found in words such as cause, law, all, salt, psalm, half, change, chamber, dance had become an open back monophthong /ɔː/ or /ɑː/. At this time, the short /ɔ/ in dog was lowered to /ɒ/ There were thus two open back monophthongs: /ɒ/ as in lot /ɔː/ or /ɑː/ as in cause; and one open back diphthong: /ɔw/ as in low
Old English had a number of diphthongs, but all of them had been reduced to monophthongs in the transition to Middle English. Diphthongs in Middle English came about by various processes and at various time periods and tended to change their quality over time. The changes above occurred mostly between early and late Middle English.
Length: it is important to distinguish two aspects of vowel length. One is the phonological difference in length exhibited by some languages. Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian, Arabic and Latin have a two-way phonemic contrast between short and long vowels. The Mixe language has a three-way contrast among short, half-long, and long vowels. [31]