3 Long vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs

3.1 English long vow els

In Chapter 2 the short vowels were introduced. In this chapter we look at other
types of English vowel sound. The first to be introduced here are the five long vowels;
these are the vowels which tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts.
It is necessary to say “in similar contexts” because, as we shall see later, the length of
all English vowel sounds varies very much according to their context (such as the type
of sound that follows them) and the presence or absence of stress. To remind you that
these vowels tend to be long, the symbols consist of one vowel symbol plus a length
mark made of two dots :. Thus we have i:,3 i,a :,o :,u :. We will now look at each of
these long vowels individually.
The five long vowels are different from the six short vowels described in Chapter
2, not only in length but also in quality. If we compare some similar pairs of long and
short vowels, for example 1 with i:, or u with u:, or ae with a:, we can see distinct dif­
ferences in quality (resulting from differences in tongue shape and position, and lip
position) as well as in length. For this reason, all the long vowels have symbols which
are different from those of short vowels; you can see that the long and short vowel sym­
bols would still all be different from each other even if we omitted the length mark, so
it is important to remember that the length mark is used not because it is essential but
because it helps learners to remember the length difference. Perhaps the only case where
a long and a short vowel are closely similar in quality is that of a and 3 :, but a is a spe­
cial case - as we shall see later.
O AU3 (CD 1), Exs 1-5

Fig. 6 English long vow els

16
 Long vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs 17

i: (example words: ‘beat’, ‘mean’, ‘peace’) This vowel is nearer to cardinal vowel no.
1 [i] (i.e. it is closer and more front) than is the short vowel o f‘bid’, ‘pin’, ‘fish’
described in Chapter 2. Although the tongue shape is not much different from
cardinal vowel no. 1, the lips are only slightly spread and this results in a rather
different vowel quality.
3 : (example words: ‘bird’, ‘fern’, ‘purse’) This is a mid-central vowel which is used in
most English accents as a hesitation sound (written ‘er’), but which many learners
find difficult to copy. The lip position is neutral,
a: (example words: ‘card’, ‘half’, ‘pass’) This is an open vowel in the region of cardi­
nal vowel no. 5 [a], but not as back as this. The lip position is neutral,
o: (example words: ‘board’, ‘torn’, ‘horse’) The tongue height for this vowel is
between cardinal vowel no. 6 [o] and no. 7 [o], and closer to the latter. This
vowel is almost fully back and has quite strong lip-rounding,
u: (example words: ‘food’, ‘soon’, ‘loose’) The nearest cardinal vowel to this is no. 8
[u], but BBC u: is much less back and less close, while the lips are only moderately
rounded.

3.2 Diphthongs O AU3 (CD 1), Exs 6 & 7

BBC pronunciation has a large number of diphthongs - sounds which consist of a

movement or glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which remains constant and does
not glide is called a pure vowel.
In terms of length, diphthongs are similar to the long vowels described above. Perhaps
the most important thing to remember about all the diphthongs is that the first part is much
longer and stronger than the second part; for example, most of the diphthong ai (as in the
words ‘eye’, ‘I’) consists of the a vowel, and only in about the last quarter of the diphthong
does the glide to i become noticeable. As the glide to i happens, the loudness of the sound
decreases. As a result, the i part is shorter and quieter. Foreign learners should, therefore,
always remember that the last part of English diphthongs must not be made too strongly.
The total number of diphthongs is eight (though oa is increasingly rare). The easiest
way to remember them is in terms of three groups divided as in this diagram (Fig. 7):

DIPHTHONG

centring closing

ending in 9 ending in i ending in o

ei ai oi au

Fig. 7 Diphthongs
18 English Phonetics and Phonology

The centring diphthongs glide towards the 3 (schwa) vowel, as the symbols indicate.
is (example words: ‘beard’, weird’, ‘fierce’) The starting point
is a little closer than i in ‘bit’, ‘bin’,
ea (example words: ‘aired’, ‘cairn’, ‘scarce’) This diphthong
begins with a vowel sound that is more open than the e
o f‘get’, ‘men’.
(example words: ‘moored’, ‘tour’, ‘lure’) For speakers who
have this diphthong, this has a starting point similar to u
Fig. 8 Centring diphthongs in ‘put’, ‘puli’. Many speakers pronounce o: instead.

The closing diphthongs have the characteristic that they all end with a glide towards a
closer vowel. Because the second part of the diphthong is weak, they often do not reach
a position that could be called close. The important thing is that a glide from a relatively
more open towards a relatively closer vowel is produced.
Three of the diphthongs glide towards i, as described below:
ei (example words: ‘paid’, ‘pain’, ‘face’) The starting point is
the same as the e o f‘get’, ‘men’,
ai (example words: ‘tide’, ‘time’, ‘nice’) This diphthong begins
with an open vowel which is between front and back; it is
quite similar to the a of the words ‘cut’, ‘bun’,
oi (example words: ‘void’, ‘loin’, ‘voice’) The first part of this
diphthong is slightly more open than o: in ‘ought’, ‘born’.
Fig. 9 Closing diphthongs

Two diphthongs glide towards u, so that as the tongue moves closer to the roof of the
mouth there is at the same time a rounding movement of the lips. This movement is not a
large one, again because the second part of the diphthong is weak.
su (example words: ‘load’, ‘home’, ‘most’) The vowel position for the beginning
of this is the same as for the “schwa” vowel a, as found in the first syllable of
the word ‘about’. The lips may be slightly rounded in anticipation of the glide
towards u, for which there is quite noticeable lip-rounding,
au (example words: ‘loud’, ‘gown’, ‘house’) This diphthong begins with a vowel
similar to ai. Since this is an open vowel, a glide to u would necessitate a large
movement, and the tongue often does not reach the u position. There is only
slight lip-rounding.

3.3 Triphthongs

The most complex English sounds of the vowel type are the triphthongs. They can be
rather difficult to pronounce, and very difficult to recognise. A triphthong is a glide from
 3 Long vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs 19

one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption. For
example, a careful pronunciation of the word ‘hour’begins with a vowel quality similar to a:,
goes on to a glide towards the back close rounded area (for which we use the symbol u), then
ends with a mid-central vowel (schwa, o). We use the symbol auo to represent the pronun­
ciation o f‘hour’, but this is not always an accurate representation of the pronunciation.
The triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs
described in the last section, with 0 added on the end. Thus we get:
e i + 9 = eiO OU + 0 = OUO
ai + 0 = aio au + 0 = auo
oi + 0 = 010
The principal cause of difficulty for the foreign learner is that in present-day English the
extent of the vowel movement is very small, except in very careful pronunciation. Because
of this, the middle of the three vowel qualities of the triphthong (i.e. the 1 or u part) can
hardly be heard and the resulting sound is difficult to distinguish from some of the diph­
thongs and long vowels. To add to the difficulty, there is also the problem of whether a
triphthong is felt to contain one or two syllables. Words such as ‘fire’ faio or ‘hour’ auo
are probably felt by most English speakers (with BBC pronunciation) to consist of only
one syllable, whereas ‘player’ pleio or 'slower’ slouo are more likely to be heard as two
syllables.
We will not go through a detailed description of each triphthong. This is partly
because there is so much variation in the amount of vowel movement according to how
slow and careful the pronunciation is, and also because the “careful” pronunciation can be
found by looking at the description of the corresponding diphthong and adding 0 to the
end. However, to help identify these triphthongs, some example words are given here:
eio ‘layer5,‘player’ ouo ‘lower’, ‘mower’
aio ‘liar’, ‘fire’ auo ‘power’, ‘hour’
010 ‘loyal’, ‘royal’

Notes on problem s and fu rth e r reading

For more information about vowels, see Ashby (2005, Chapter 4), Ladefoged (2004,
Chapter 3). Long vowels and diphthongs can be seen as a group of vowel sounds that
are consistently longer in a given context than the short vowels described in the previous
chapter. Some writers give the label tense to long vowels and diphthongs and lax to the
short vowels. Giegerich (1992) explains how this concept applies to three different accents
of English: SSE (Standard Scottish English), RP (BBC pronunciation) and GA (General
American). The accents are described in 3.1 and 3.2; the idea of pairs of vowels differing
in tenseness and laxness follows in 3.3. Jakobson and Halle (1964) explain the histori­
cal background to the distinction, which plays an important role in the treatment of the
English vowel system by Chomsky and Halle (1968).
As mentioned in the notes on Chapter 1, the choice of symbols has in the past tended
to vary from book to book, and this is particularly noticeable in the case of length marks