Search results for 'tag:Difference between tag:Diphthongs' matching tags 'Difference between' and 'Diphthongs'

Re: diphthong

Cool Breeze — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:39:58 GMT

Jackson6612

diphthong:
(phonetics) a combination of two vowel sounds or vowel letters
monophthong:
a speech sound that consists of only one vowel sound
triphthong:
a combination of three vowel sounds or vowel letters

The above definitions use the expressions ''vowel sounds'' and ''vowel letters''. What is the difference between a ''vowel sound'' and ''vowel letter''?

Two vowel letters are something you can see with your eyes in a word like soul. Two vowel sounds is something you can hear with your ears only, not see in print: gave. In the last example there is only one written vowel, a. There may be languages in which diphthongs are pronounced even when they are not represented by a single vowel letter.

Re: diphthong

Jackson6612 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:00:03 GMT

Definitions from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

diphthong:
(phonetics) a combination of two vowel sounds or vowel letters
monophthong:
a speech sound that consists of only one vowel sound
triphthong:
a combination of three vowel sounds or vowel letters

The above definitions use the expressions ''vowel sounds'' and ''vowel letters''. What is the difference between a ''vowel sound'' and ''vowel letter''?

Re: diphthong

Jackson6612 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:29:01 GMT

Definitions from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

diphthong:
(phonetics) a combination of two vowel sounds or vowel letters
monophthong:
a speech sound that consists of only one vowel sound
triphthong:
a combination of three vowel sounds or vowel letters

The above definitions answer some of my questions.

CalifJim

Note also the difference between a vowel (an invisible sound) and a vowel letter (a visible written mark).

What is the difference between a vowel and a vowel letter?
I just take a vowel as a soul and a vowel letter as a body. The soul breathes life to the body.

Re: diphthong

CalifJim — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:41:18 GMT

No, that's not really a very satisfactory explanation of diphthongs!

There are a few posts on vowels on the forum, which you should search.

Note also the difference between a vowel (an invisible sound) and a vowel letter (a visible written mark).

Re: How's and House - are they pronounced differently?

Kooyeen — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:25:56 GMT

Oh, I was forgetting about vowel length... You guys are right. I just didn't think about that because it seems to me that in some cases the distinction is not very noticeable, especially in diphthongs. I can definitely tell the difference between "got" and "god", but I don't think there's such a noticeable difference between "how's" and "house", for example...

Re: Question about how to pronounce Europe

Orpheus — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:10:01 GMT

I'd say that there is a slight difference between the US and UK pronunciation of the word. The first syllable of Europe in British English is generally pronounced with the diphthong // while in American English it is simply with the vowel //. The diphthong // is a characteristic of British English and is not found in American English; American English in corresponding places would have the simple vowel // followed by /r/.
The first consonant sound /j/ on the other hand is pronounced exactly the same in both American and British English. It is the same /j/ as in 'you'.

Re: Canadians and their English

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 05:54:21 GMT

General Canadian English is extremely similar to General American English. However, there are a number of differences between the two dialects. Firstly, GCE (General Canadian English) exhibits a linguistic phenomenon called Canadian Raising. Basically, the diphthong âaiâ--as in "by" or "lie"--is raised before voiceless consonants (t, k, p, s, f); by contrast, this diphthong is not raised before other consonants (v, z, d, b, l, m, n, r, etc). Thus, by using Canadian Raising, the words in the following word pairs can be pronounced differently: ride and write, five and fife, and rise and rice.
The diphthong "au," as in "loud," is commonly raised before the consonants "t," "th," "ch," and "s." This diphthong is not raised before the consonants "d," "z," "n," and "j." As was pointed out, the word "about" sounds like "a boat"... well, to American ears, that is. In General American English, the diphthong "ai" is not raised before any consonant, nor is the diphthong "au." Yet, this raising has been occurring in various areas of the U.S., and it has spread quite far.

Another difference between these dialects is that, in GCE, the vowel "o" is always pronounced as "o" before the consonant "r." Therefore, âsorryâ is pronounced sor-ee, âborrowâ is pronounced bor-row, and âsorrow,â sor-row. In General American English, the vowel "o" is sometimes pronounced as the vowel "a"--as in "father"--before the consonant "r." In GAE (General American English), "sorry" is pronounced sar-ee, "borrow" is pronounced bar-row, and âsor-rowâ is pronounced sar-row. This, nevertheless, isn't very common in GAE; in fact, I canât think of any other word that is pronounced with the vowel âa,â other than sorrow, borrow, and sorry.

Many Canadians pronounce the word "marry" as "merry." In GAE, âmarryâ is pronounced with the vowel âae.â

In GCE, "pasta," "mazda," "lava," "drama," âYahooÂ®,â "taco," and other similar words are pronounced with the vowel "ae." In GAE, these words are pronounced with the vowel "a.â In GCE, on the other hand, these and few other foreign words are pronounced with the vowel "a": macho, Guatemala, Bach, and karate. Why is this so? I sure as heck don't know; it's an anomaly.

Of course, let's not forget Canadian lexicon. In Canada, "pop" is universally used as a term for a carbonated beverage. Even in the U.S., "pop" is used quite widely. It's largely used in the Midwest, Upper Midwest, and Northwest. As well, many Canadians refer to candy bars as "chocolate bars."
In GCE, the idioms "in hospital" and "to university" are used, in lieu of the American idioms "in the hospital" and "to the university," which includes a definite article. So, one may say, "I'm going to have my surgery in hospital," or "I'm going to attend university during the fall."

The last letter of the Canadian alphabet, "zed," is different from the last letter of the American alphabet, "zee."

Well, this is pretty much all I know about GCE.

Re: which pronunciation for clarity is more popular?

Kooyeen — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:23:59 GMT

Ok, this thread is becoming a mess, it was my fault, I'm so sorry...
Well, let's try to distinguish those sounds, with the help of some audio files:

IPA / Ã¦ /
XSAMPA / { /
Example: cat /kÃ¦t/ - http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cat

IPA / É /
XSAMPA / E /
Example: bet /bÉt/ - http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bet

IPA / e /
XSAMPA / e /
Example: may /mei/ (starting sound in the diphthong) - http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/may

Additional examples. Notice the difference between Ã¦, É , e.
PLAY - I always say /plei/, but here you can hear /plÉi/ ---> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/play
WEAR - I always say /wer/, like here ---> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wear
BEAR - I always say /ber/, but here you can hear /bÉr/ ----> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bear

Re: tE or dE

Alienvoord — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:13:25 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervocalic_alveolar_flapping

/t/ is flapped after a vowel, /r/ and sometimes /l/, and before an unstressed syllable.

I'm not sure that there is much difference between flapped /t/ and /d/ in pairs like "latter" - "ladder". These words are distinguished by the vowel length. The vowel is longer before /d/.

In my speech, the diphthongs in "writing" and "riding" are different.

Re: The letter A

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:58:13 GMT

Edit : Or i meant the difference between the diphthong ei and ae in some words...