Triphthong

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In phonetics, a triphthong (UK: /ˈtrɪfθɒŋ, ˈtrɪpθɒŋ/ TRIF-thong, TRIP-thong, US: /-θɔːŋ/ -⁠thawng) (from Greek τρίφθογγος triphthongos, lit. 'with three sounds' or 'with three tones') is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third. While "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, are said to have one target articulator position, diphthongs have two and triphthongs three.

Triphthongs are not to be confused with disyllabic sequences of a diphthong followed by a monophthong, as in German Feuer 'fire', where the final vowel is longer than those found in triphthongs.

Examples

Triphthongs that feature close elements typically analyzed as /j/ and /w/ in phonology are not listed. For instance, the Polish word łój 'tallow' is typically analyzed as /CVC/ - a sequence of a consonant followed by a vowel and another consonant. This is because the palatal approximant is resyllabified in some inflected forms, such as łojami (instr. pl.), and also because /w/ occurs word-finally after a consonant just like /l/ does (compare przemysł 'industry' with Przemyśl 'Przemyśl'), which means that both of them behave more like consonants than vowels.

On the other hand, are not treated as phonetic consonants when they arise from vocalization of /l/, /v/ or /ɡ/ as they do not share almost all of their features with those three.

First segment is the nucleus

Bernese German

Bernese German has the following triphthongs:

as in Gieu 'boy'
as in Gfüeu 'feeling'
as in Schueu 'school'

They have arisen due to the vocalization of /l/ in the syllable coda; compare the last two with Standard German Gefühl and Schule , the last one with a schwa not present in the Bernese word.

Danish

Danish has the following triphthongs:

as in færge 'ferry'
as in hvirvle 'to whirl'
as in Børge, a given name
as in spurv 'sparrow'

English

In British Received Pronunciation, and most other non-rhotic (r-dropping) varieties of English, monosyllabic triphthongs with R are optionally distinguished from sequences with disyllabic realizations:

as in: flour (compare with disyllabic "flower" )
as in: byre (compare with disyllabic "buyer" )
as in: coir (compare with disyllabic "coyer" ), loir (compare with disyllabic "lawyer" )

As and become and respectively before /r/, most instances of and are words with the suffix "-er", such as player and lower. Other instances are loanwords, such as boa.

are sometimes written as ⟨awə, ajə, ɔjə⟩, or similarly. On Wikipedia, they are not considered to feature the approximants /w/ and /j/, following the analysis adopted by the majority of sources.

Second segment is the nucleus

Spanish:

as in buey 'ox'
as in Uruguay 'Uruguay'
as in cambiáis 'you change'
as in cambiéis 'that you may change'

The last two are mostly restricted to European Spanish. In Latin American Spanish (which has no distinct vosotros form), the corresponding words are cambian and cambien , with a rising-opening diphthong followed by a nasal stop and initial, rather than final stress. In phonology, are analyzed as a monosyllabic sequence of three vowels: /uei, uai, iai, iei/. In Help:IPA/Spanish, those triphthongs are transcribed ⟨wej, waj, jaj, jej⟩: , , ,

References

^ "Vokale". udtale.de (in German). Retrieved 8 Feb 2024.

Bibliography

Gütter, Adolf (1971), Nordbairischer Sprachatlas, Munich: R. Lerche
Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, Vol. 2: The British Isles (pp. i–xx, 279–466), Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611759, ISBN 0-52128540-2