Dipthong-What is a Dipthong?Types And illustration-Phonetics

WHAT IS A DIPTHONG?

Dipthong  are speech sounds, literally "Two sounds" or "two tones" also known as the gliding vowel.It is a combination of two vowels in a single syllable , in which the sound begin as one vowel and moves toward another like the 'oy' sound in 'oil '. Dipthong comes from the Greek word 'DIPTHONGOS' which means "having two sounds".

DIPTHONG CHART

Like the pure vowels ,five of the Dipthong have different degrees of length, depending upon the environment in which they occur in words.

THIS FIVE DIPTHONG ARE-

"eɪ",  "aɪ", "ɔɪ", "aʊ" ,  "əʊ"

DIPTHONG WITH ILLUSTRATION

1. During the articulation of  "eɪ"  ,the front of the tongue is first raised towards the hard palate to a height between half close and half opens. It then quickly moves to a position between close and half close.The lips are spread throughout.

While articulating this vowel , the glide begins just below the front,half-close,Unrounded position and moves in the direction of a centralized ,front,Unrounded vowel sound. A slights closing movement of the lower jaw is noticed during articulating, The lips are spread while articulating the sound it occurs in all position ,

For Example -

initial - eight ,aim
Medial - Game , late
Final - Say , grey


2.During the articulation of  "aɪ"  ,the front of the tongue is first raised in a full open position and then it moves towards a height between close and half close.The lips are neutral at the beginning and spread at the end.

The glide of this dipthopng begins in the front,open,position and moves in the direction associated with /ɪ/ ,the closing movement of the lower jaw being obvious.

The vowels occurs in all the three position ,E.g-

Initial - Ice , Island
Medial - Bite, Fight
Final - Try, cry 


3.During the articulation of "ɔɪ"  ,first the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate to a height between open and half open. Then the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate to a height between close and half close . The lips are closely rounded in the beginning and spread at the end. Read Speech Mechanism

The glide begins in the front ,open,position and moves in the direction associated with // . The lips are slightly rounded for the first element changing to neutral for the second.As the glide takes place the closing movement  becomes obvious, The dipthong occurs in all the three positions of a word
.
FOR EXAMPLE-
Initial - oil
Medial - boil,coil
Final - toy , employ


4.During the articulation of "aʊ"  ,first the back of the tongue is low in the mouth , in the fully open position .Then it quickly glides to a height between close and half close .The lips are neutral in the beginning and rounded at the end.

the glide in this dipthong begins at an advanced ,back-open unrounded position and moves in the direction of /ʊ/ ,which is a centralized back rounded vowel just above the half-close position,the dipthong occurs in all the three position in a word.

For Example -
Initial - Owl ,hour
Medial - Crowd , house
Final - Cow ,how

5.During the articulation of  "əʊ" ,first the centre of the tongue is raised in the direction of the part of the mouth which lies between the hard palate and the soft palate and then back of the tongue moves towards the soft palate to a height just above half close . The lips are spreaded in the beginning and rounded during the articulation of second element.Also Read English Basic sentence structure

The glide of this dipthong begin at a central position between half close and half open position and moves in the direction of /ʊ/ which is a centralized back vowel between close and half close positon this dipthong occurs in all the three position in word .

For Example - 
Initial - own,old
Medial - Road , Home
Final - Foe , Hoe

ALSO CHECK

SPEECH MECHANISM
VOWELS DIAGRAM WITH DIFFERENT LABELS