Diphthong

A diphthong is a sound that moves from one vowel sound to another. There are two main kinds in English: rising diphthongs and falling diphthongs.

Falling diphthong
A falling diphthong starts with a vowel of higher prominence and ends with a short vowel [ɪ], [ʊ], [ə] or semivowel [j] or [w]. In English it is customary to use vowels (e.g. [ɪ] instead of [j]), and to consider falling diphthongs as phonemes.
 * IPA phoneme /eɪ/: face, play
 * IPA phoneme /ɔɪ/: choice, boy
 * IPA phoneme /aʊ/: mouth, how
 * IPA phoneme /aɪ/: price, fly
 * IPA phoneme /əʊ/: goat, so
 * IPA phoneme /eə/: square
 * IPA phoneme /ʊə/: cure
 * IPA phoneme /ɪə/: near

Some phoneticians consider that /iː/ is a diphthong [ij] and that /uː/ is a diphthong [uw].

Rising diphthong
A rising diphthong begins with a semivowel [j] or [w]. In English rising diphthongs are normally analyzed as sequences of two phonemes. There are many rising diphthongs in English, as /j/ and /w/ can combine with many vowels.


 * IPA phonetic sequence /juː/: cute, few
 * /jɒ/: yacht
 * /je/: yell
 * /jə/: Kenya
 * /wiː/: weed
 * /wɪ/: quick
 * /wɔː/: walk