Diphthongs in English: pronunciation. Diphthongs and triphthongs: pronunciation rules

There are no diphthongs or triphthongs in the Russian language, but for English their presence is one of the characteristic features phonetics of the English language. Diphthongs and triphthongs are complex sounds that consist of two or three vowel tones pronounced together. There are only three triphthongs in English, and they are very rare, so in this article we will focus on diphthongs.

The first sound of a diphthong is syllabic and stressed, it is the main one, it is called the core. The second element is called glide, it is very short; when pronouncing it, the tongue very often does not even reach the position that is necessary to pronounce it.

The duration of pronunciation of the first element of a diphthong is approximately the same as that of ordinary long vowels. The other sound, as already mentioned, is very short. If the diphthong is at the end of a word, then before the pause between words it is pronounced a little drawn out. And if next word starts with voiced consonants, then it is pronounced a little shorter. Before voiceless consonants - as briefly as possible.

Thus, in modern English language The following trends are observed:

• The first sound is long
• The second sound is short, with obvious neutralization relative to phonemes.

Well, now let's move on to watching video lessons on the pronunciation of double phonemes.

As you already know, a diphthong is two sounds fused together to form one syllable, with one phoneme being slightly longer and the other being slightly shorter. Watch the video carefully, listen to the teacher and repeat all the words after the speaker. Try to copy the intonation and pronunciation of the teacher from the video as accurately as possible.

There are only eight diphthongs in English:

[ɪə]

It is pronounced like the Russian “ie”, with “i” being long and “e” being short. Indicated in writing by the following letter combinations:

• eer - deer
• ier - fierce
• ear - gear
• ere - severe

Similar to our “ue”, respectively, “u” is longer than “e”. This is what it looks like graphically:

• ure - sure
• ue - cruel
• our - tour

Pronounced "ay". Expressed in writing as follows, in an open syllable and at the end of a word:

• y - fly
• uy-guy
• ye - dye
• eye - eyebrow
• i - line
• ie - tie
• igh - knight

[ɔɪ]

Sounds like "oh". It is transmitted using the following combinations of letters:

• oy - annoy
• oi - noisy

[əu]

Similar in pronunciation to something between “ou” and “eu”. In an open syllable, it is indicated by the letter “o” under stress, and by some letter combinations:

• o - bone
• ou - soul
• oa - coat
• oll-roller
• ow - snow
• old-cold

[ɛə]

It is read as an average between “ea” and “ee”, that is, the first element is exactly “e”, and the second fluctuates between “a” and “e”. Expressed through:

• ear-bear
• are - care
• air - repair

Similar to the Russian “au”, which is read together, but “a” is longer than “u”. Transmitted in writing using connections:

• ou - pound
• ow - town

It reads like “hey,” but a little softer. In an open syllable, stress is expressed by the letter “a” and the following combinations:

• a-save
• ea - great
• ai - main
• ey - gray
• ay-tray
• ei - eight

How to pronounce English triphthongs?

It is read as "aye". The sound “a” is long, and “y” and “e” are pronounced together, but briefly. The letter is conveyed as follows:

• iar-liar
• ire - fire
• iet-quiet
• yre - tire
• ier - tier

Similar to our “aue”. The letter “w” conveys the phoneme “u”, the graphic designation on the letter is as follows:

• ower - power
• our - sour

Pronounced as “yue”: pure, European. Here “y” is the longest. In writing it is expressed through combinations:

• ure - pure
• eur - European

Watch a video lecture on the pronunciation of triphthongs in English

The video explains everything simply and clearly. Therefore, make yourself comfortable and start watching educational video lectures on the pronunciation of English phonemes. Repeat until you can pronounce it like a professional speaker. Good luck!

Having studied the Russian alphabet, we can easily read any texts. But to read correctly in English you will have to make more efforts, because there are many discrepancies between the spelling and pronunciation of words. If you decide to learn this language on your own and cannot understand how to read words in English correctly, then this material– exactly what you need. Today we will look at the nuances of pronunciation English letters and letter combinations, and find out how easy it is to learn to read English from scratch. A table that shows all the letters and their sounds will help you learn the rules of reading English for beginners.

First, let's get to know the most important law reading in English - the rule of open and closed syllables. There is no similar norm in the Russian language, so we will analyze in detail what it is. Please pay attention to the transcription.

An open syllable is a syllable that ends with a vowel sound. As a rule, it occurs in the following cases:

• The word ends in a vowel, so the last syllable is always open: t ake[take].*
• A vowel is followed by a consonant, followed by another vowel sound: ed uca tion [education].
• There are two vowels adjacent to the word: cr ue l [cruel].

*Final e in most cases it is considered “dumb”, that is, it is not pronounced, but appears at the heart of the word precisely to form an open syllable.

In open syllables, the vowel is always pronounced smoothly and drawn out. Accordingly, closed syllables are all those syllables in which the vowel sound is closed by a consonant and therefore sounds short and abrupt: c ut[cat].

In addition, special reading rules in English are characteristic of syllables in which the vowel sound ends with the letter r. The fact is that in the British version of the pronunciation of such syllables, the letter r is often completely omitted, i.e. not pronounced. Therefore, there are two options for reading such letter combinations:

1. In an open syllable, when r is surrounded by vowels, only both vowels are read: c are[keea]. In such cases, the last e will not be dumb.
2. IN closed syllable (voice+r+acc.), r is also unreadable, but affects the sound of the vowel sound, making it longer: start [staat]

The rule of open and closed syllables is the basic law of reading in English, although there are many exceptions to it. But it’s too early to teach exceptions without knowing the main rules. Therefore, now we will look at the sound options of all letters and letter combinations.

Rules for reading English for beginners - letter and sound correspondence table

Even if you started learning English and reading it from scratch, you are probably already familiar with the spelling and sound of all the letters of the English alphabet. But, as we already learned from the previous section, when reading, the pronunciation of letters depends on the type of syllable or letter combination. Therefore, in the tables below you can find several sound options for the same letter. But don't be alarmed, there will be an accessible explanation for each case. So, let's continue to learn English for beginners and learn the rules of reading in English.

Consonants

Let's start with the easiest thing: with a table of consonants, the pronunciation of which is similar to the Russian sound.

*English d and t are pronounced with more aspiration than their Russian counterparts.

**w is pronounced with the lips extended into a tube, the result is something between the Russian sounds v and u.

Now let's look at more complex letters.

We will also study letter combinations of consonants in English.

In addition, it is worth considering that the English language never allows consonants at the very end of a word to be deafened. Otherwise, you may say something completely different from what you wanted. For example: back [back] – behind, behind; bag [bag] – bag, sack.

Vowels

It is much more difficult to cope with reading English vowels, but the already familiar rules of open and closed syllables will help us understand it. We take them into service and learn to read the vowels of the English language correctly.

Do not forget that in a closed syllable all letters are pronounced briefly.

And the vowels of an open syllable are always smooth and drawn out.

We remember that the letter r after a vowel, as a rule, is not pronounced.

Now we know how to read vowels in English words. But for perfect reading in English, it is necessary to study one more point.

Diphthongs and triphthongs in English

An important aspect of English for beginners is diphthongs and triphthongs, i.e. combinations of two or three letters that have a special sound. Their pronunciation is called sliding, because. First, the main sound is pronounced intensively, and then it is smoothly transferred to the secondary sound. Diphthongs are a kind of exception and do not obey general grammatical laws, so they can only be learned by heart. The table below will help us learn the rules for reading English diphthongs for beginners.

*doubling the letter indicates the length of the first sound in relation to the second.

So, we have looked at the main nuances of reading in English. Treat the stated rules responsibly: conduct reading lessons more often and be sure to learn to distinguish between types of syllables in English. Otherwise, you will make gross mistakes in pronunciation, which will lead to a complete misunderstanding of your words by the interlocutor. Good luck in learning English and see you again!

The English alphabet has 6 vowel letters, which through various combinations form 22 sounds. Among these sounds there are special groups called monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs. They differ in the number of component sounds.

Monophthongs are ordinary sounds familiar to our ears. In English there are 12 of them: [i], , , [u], [ə], [e], [æ], [ə:], , [ʌ], [ɔ:], [ɔ]. They can be short or long. In writing they can be expressed in one or more letters.

A diphthong in English is an indivisible sound. It is formed by a combination of two vowel sounds. One of them is considered the “core” that forms a syllable, and the other is only an “echo”. There are 8 diphthongs in English: , , , , [əʊ], , [ʊə], [ͻi]. Similar Russian sounds do not exist. When pronouncing a diphthong, the speech organs do not change their position; two vowel sounds are pronounced as one, without being divided into syllables.

In English, vowel diphthongs are divided into 3 types:

1. Rising. The second sound is dominant over the first.
2. Descending. The first sound predominates.
3. Equilibrium. Both sounds have the same acoustics and are pronounced smoothly.

Triphthongs have a more intricate design, combining 3 vowel sounds. There are two of them in English: and.

Diphthong and digraph

Many people confuse the concepts of “diphthong” and “digraph”, but they have completely different constructions.

A digraph is one sound, but always two letters. A diphthong is two sounds and can consist of 1, 2 or 3 letters. However, vowels belonging to different syllables are read separately - they are neither a digraph nor a diphthong.

Examples of digraphs in English:

1. Sh [ʃ] is read as the Russian sound “sh”.
2. At the end of the word ng [ŋ] is pronounced like a nasal “n” (the root of the tongue is pressed against the soft palate).
3. Consisting of one syllable “ee” [ɪ] sounds like the Russian “i”.
4. Th has no analogue in Russian. Depending on the case, it is read differently: [θ] - like an interdental “s” or [ð] - like an interdental “z”.
5. Ch sounds like the Russian "ch" sound.
6. The combination kn [n] is pronounced like a regular “n”.
7. The letter combination “ea” located in one syllable is read as the sound “and”.

Studying digraphs and diphthongs will not be difficult because they do not depend on adjacent letters and stress in the word.

Diphthong

The diphthong is similar to the Russian "ay". The letter is conveyed in the following letters:

• y (in an open stressed syllable);
• ye (at the end of a word);
• i (in an open stressed syllable);
• ie (at the end of a word);

• fly - to fly, to fly;
• dye - to paint, color;
• eyebrow [ˈaɪbraʊ] - eyebrow;
• line - line, line;
• tie - tie, tie;
• guy [ɡaɪ] - guy, small;
• knight - horseman, knight;
• lie - lie, deception.

Diphthong

The diphthong is similar to the Russian "au". In writing it is expressed in letters:

• house - dwelling, house;
• how [ˈhaʊ] - in what way, how;
• sound - sound, noise;
• down - descent, down;
• cloud - cloud, cloud;
• brown - brown, brown;
• town - city, place.

Diphthong

The diphthong is similar to the Russian "ey". Transmitted in letters:

• late - late, last;
• tray - chute, tray;
• main - main, main;
• great [ɡreɪt] - great, excellent;
• gray [ɡreɪ] - gray, cloudy;
• eight - eight;
• day - day, day.

Diphthong

The diphthong is similar to the Russian "ea". Expressed in the following letters:

• bear - bear, mole cricket;
• care - to look after, take care of;
• hair - hair, hair;
• fair - fair, honest.

Diphthong [əʊ]

The diphthong [əʊ] is similar to the Russian “ou”. The letter is conveyed in letters:

• o (in a stressed open syllable);

• bone - bone, bony;
• soul - spirit, soul;
• coat [ˈkəʊt] - coat, jacket;
• snow - snow, snowy.

Diphthong

The diphthong is similar to the Russian “ie”. In writing it is expressed in letters:

• deer - fallow deer;
• fierce - cruel, strong;
• gear [ɡɪə] - mechanism, transmission;
• severe - serious, severe;
• tear [ˈtɪə] - tear, burst.

Diphthong [ʊə]

The diphthong [ʊə] is similar to the Russian "ue". It is transmitted in the following letters:

• sure [ʃʊə] - certainly, certainly;
• cruel - cruel, terrible;
• poor - poor, bad;
• tour - excursion, tour;
• endure [ɪnˈdjʊə] - endure, endure.

Diphthong [ͻi]

The diphthong [ͻi] is similar to the Russian “oy”. The letter states:

• annoy [əˈnɔɪ] - to annoy, bother;
• noisy [ˈnɔɪzi] - noisy, screaming;
• soy - soy sauce, soy;
• oil [ɔɪl] - oil, petroleum;
• boy [ˌbɔɪ] - boy, young man.

Features of the pronunciation of diphthongs

The pronunciation of diphthongs in English is sometimes accompanied by errors, because in Russian similar sounds No. Pronouncing new vowel combinations correctly requires a special position of the tongue and lips.

It is also necessary to remember some nuances of the pronunciation of diphthongs in English:

1. In a diphthong, the sound [e] is pronounced strongly, like something between the Russian “e” and a soft “e”. [i] is a short and weak vowel sound; it should not be pronounced like the Russian consonant “y”.
2. The first sound of most diphthongs in English should sound longer than the second. Thanks to this, the speech will be more similar to English.
3. In a diphthong, the sound [e] is strong and long, and [ə] is weak and short.

Most sounds and diphthongs in English cause a lot of difficulties for Russian speakers. Therefore, it is important to first simply remember the rules of pronunciation, and only then begin to practice the acquired knowledge. Regular training is the key to your success!

The nature of the vowel changes throughout its pronunciation in the flow of speech, i.e. the vowel is heterogeneous from an acoustic point of view. However, this heterogeneity, arising as a result of the influence of neighboring sounds, is insignificant from a phonemic point of view; it remains invisible to the speaker and the listener.

A special category of vowels is represented by two-part vowels, which, however, constitute a certain unity. This unity can be defined purely phonetically as the “unity” of pronunciation and phonemically as the inseparability into two phonemes. This circumstance forced phonetics to introduce the concept of diphthong (gr. di(s) twice, double + phthongos voice, sound).

A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds in one syllable, functioning as a single, complex unit of sound system.

The main phonetic recognition of a diphthong is that it represents a combination of two vowels making up one syllable. These sounds are often very contrasting in quality. For example: open vowels are combined with closed ones: ; unrounded with rounded; but a combination of vowels that are similar in articulation is also possible.

There are 3 types of diphthongs to distinguish:

falling (descending) diphthongs, where a vowel as the top of a syllable precedes another consonant, i.e. the apex of the syllable is in the first element of the diphthong (German Maus - mouse, Eis - ice)

ascending diphthongs, where, on the contrary, the apex follows the consonant vowel (Spanish puedo - I can)

equilibrium, where an unstable equilibrium prevails, so that it is impossible to distinguish which of both vowels is the top (Latvian meita - daughter)

L.V. Shcherba considered the first two types to be false diphthongs, because their components are unequal - one of them is subordinate; He called the third type a true diphthong, i.e. both components, while maintaining the integrity of the syllable, remain phonetically equivalent.

The phonemic interpretation of diphthongs is one of the most difficult phonological problems in general. The question is whether a diphthong is a combination of two independent phonemes or is one phonetically complex phoneme. In general, this question is a special case common problem division of the speech stream. As already mentioned, the strongest factor of division is morphological. Only in the case when the corresponding combination is phonemic can we talk about a diphthong as a phonemic unit. Diphthongs are never morphologically divided. There is no word in which the morphological boundary passes between the components of the diphthong. It is impossible to give an example in which the diphthong component turns out to be an independent morphological unit.

In Russian give, sing (in phonemic transcription /daj/, /poj/ combinations ah, Ouch are pronounced with a single articulatory movement, in which the second component is a reduced non-syllabic [¹]. Diphthongs are phonemically decomposable. It is enough to conjugate the indicated verbs to see that both components of these two-vowels have different morphological functions belonging to different morphemes.

In the present tense of the verbs discussed above, the syllable boundary passes within the diphthongs: /pa-ju/ I sing, I give /da-ju/.

Thus, from the point of view of syllable division, Russian diphthongs turn out to be phonemically decomposable, i.e. they are a combination of two phonemes and come from two independent units.

In him. in the word Mai /mae/ the diphthong always remains within one syllable, i.e. here the diphthong is a single phoneme. IN German, unlike Russian, diphthongs never go back to two independent units.

These are the techniques and criteria that should be used in the phonemic interpretation of diphthongs, when determining their monophonemic or biophonemic character.

Along with diphthongs, diphthongoids should be distinguished. Diphthongoids are not actually a combination of two vowels, but one vowel beginning or ending with a foreign element. M.I. Matusevich writes about this: “A special category of vowels are sounds that are to some extent diphthongic in nature. Their essence lies in the fact that a vowel has at the beginning (or at the end) an insignificant element of another vowel that is usually close in articulation, somewhat heterogeneous in nature, but does not yet produce the impression of a diphthong. So, in Russian the vowel O usually starts with a small element at and then goes through the closed option O To  open, so that it can be represented phonemically u o... There may also be diphthongoids with a glide at the end, for example e i, a vowel often obtained by people who learn to pronounce [e] closed, for example, in French or German languages” (M.I. Matusevich. Introduction to general phonetics. - L., 1948: 61).

Thus, the difference between a diphthongoid and a diphthong is that the former is a vowel with an overtone at the beginning or end, while the latter is a combination of two vowels making one syllable.

Difficult for Russian-speaking students. This is due to the fact that in English most words are read differently than they are written. In addition, there are sounds in the English language that are not in Russian, and these sounds are not easy to get used to. And sometimes these sounds are combined into diphthongs and triphthongs– phonetic units, which also do not exist in the Russian language. Let's look at what triphthongs and diphthongs are in English.

What are diphthongs and triphthongs

Diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds that are pronounced without a pause.

Triphthong is a combination of three vowel sounds, which, as in diphthongs, are pronounced without a pause.

Every diphthong and triphthong has two elements - the core and the glide. The core is the main part of a diphthong or triphthong, which is pronounced louder and clearer. And sliding is a secondary element, which you pronounce more quietly.

English diphthongs and triphthongs in the table

There are eight diphthongs in English, which can be roughly divided into three groups:

1. Ending with ə : ɪə, eə, ʊə;


2. Ending with ɪ : eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ;


3. Ending with ʊ : əʊ, aʊ.

Triphthongs include: eɪə, aɪə, ɔɪə, əʊə, aʊə.

Diphthong table:

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Triphthong table:

Common mistakes in pronouncing diphthongs and triphthongs

Russian-speaking students are characterized by two serious mistakes when pronouncing diphthongs and triphthongs:

1. Using Russian sounds instead English diphthongs. In the first stages of acquaintance with English phonetics the student usually associates unfamiliar english sounds with the Russians he is familiar with. This helps a beginner speak faster, but subsequently it is necessary to get rid of Russian sounds in English speech, since it will be more difficult to relearn.
2. “Swallowing” sliding sound. Each diphthong and triphthong must be pronounced in full, pronouncing not only its core, but also other sounds. There is a lot in English similar words, which are distinguished by ear precisely by means of sliding ones, so if you “swallow” them, you may not be understood.

Video about diphthongs and triphthongs in English: