Phonetics: Diphthongs in Standard American English 1.1

Diphthongs (from Greek meaning ‘two sounds’) are vowels that are formed by combining a vowel with an on/off glide (1), as opposed to a monophthong, which is composed of one pure vowel sound (2).

(1) /sajd/ (IPA) /sayd/ NA ‘side’
(2) /sid/ ‘seed’

(Transcriptions are in both IPA and NA when different symbols are used in each for a given sound.)

In a syllable tree, both the vowel and glide fill the nucleus. The presence of a diphthong can be perceived by saying any given word very slowly, paying close attention to the two sounds in the nucleus of the syllable. If the nucleus is filled with a diphthong, the vowel sound will change. If there is no diphthong in the nucleus, the vowel sound will remain the same.

Diphthongs in Standard American English:

/ɔj/ IPA /ɔy/ NA as in ‘boil’
/aw/ IPA /aʊ/ NA as in ‘bounce’

/aj/ IPA /ay/ NA as in ‘bite’

Note that /e/ and /o/ are considered to be followed by offglides in most words in SAE, thus they will be considered as such in this exercise.

(3) ‘boat’ /bowt/ IPA /boʊt/ NA
(4) ‘late’ /lejt/ IPA /leyt/ NA
Keep in mind that SAE speakers display significant variations in the articulation of vowels.

For each question below, decide whether or not the word presented contains a diphthong.