French

In French, /wa/, /wc

/, and /qi/ may be considered true diphthongs (that is, Iully contained in the syllable nucleus: |u a|, |u c

|,
|y

i|). Other sequences are considered part of a glide formation process that turns a high vowel into a semivowel (and part of
the syllable onset) when followed by another vowel.
[13]

Diphthongs
/wa/ |u a| as in roi "king"
/wc

/ |u c

| as in groin "muzzle"
/qi/ |y

i| as in huit "eight"
Semivowels
/wi/ as in oui "yes"
/jc

/ as in lien "bond"
/jc/ as in Arige
/aj/ as in travail "work"
/cj/ as in Marseille
/j/ as in feuille "leaf"
/uj/ as in grenouille "frog"
/j/ as in vieux "old"
English
All English diphthongs are Ialling, apart Irom /ju:/, which can be analyzed as |iu:|.
In words coming from Middle English, most cases oI the Modern English diphthongs |ai, oo , ei, ao | originated Irom the
Middle English long monophthongs |i:, :, a:, u:| through the Great Vowel Shift, although some cases oI |oo , ei| originated
from the Middle English diphthongs |u , ai|. Since these diphthongs in most cases originated Irom monophthongs, they are
considered single phonemes and not sequences of two phonemes.
Standard English diphthongs

RP (British) Australian
American
GA Canadian
low |eo | |eu | |oo |
loud
|ao | | | |ao |
|ao |
lout |eo |
[t2 1]

lied
|ai| |oe |
|ai|
light |ei|
[t2 1]

lane |ei| |i| |ei|
loin |i| |oi| |i|
loon |u:| |u:| |ou |
[t2 2]

lean |i:| |ii|
[t2 2]
|ii|
[t2 2]

leer |ie | |ie | |ie |
[t2 3]

lair |ce |
[t2 4]
|e:|
[t2 4]
|ce |
[t2 3]

lure |oe |
[t2 4]
|oe | |oe |
[t2 3]


In English, the longest possible initial cluster is three
consonants, as in split /split/ and strudel /tru:del/, all
beginning with /s/ or // and ending with /l/ or /r/;[3] the
longest possible final cluster is five consonants, as in
angsts /ksts/, though that is rare and Iour, as in twelIths
/twclIs/, sixths /sikss/, bursts /brsts/ and glimpsed
/limpst/, is more common.

However, it is important to distinguish clusters and
digraphs. Clusters are made of two or more consonant
sounds, while a digraph is a group of two consonant letters
standing for a single sound. For example, in the word ship,
the two letters of the digraph sh together represent the
single consonant []. Also note a combination digraph and
cluster as seen in length with two digraphs ng, th
representing a cluster oI two consonants: //; or even
lights with a silent digraph gh Iollowed by a cluster t,
s: /ts/.
Spanish
Spanish has six falling diphthongs and eight rising
diphthongs. In addition, during fast speech, sequences of
vowels in hiatus become diphthongs wherein one becomes
non-syllabic (unless they are the same vowel, in which
case they fuse together) as in poeta |po eta| ('poet') and
maestro |mae stro| ('teacher'). The Spanish diphthongs are.
Spanish diphthongs
falling
|ai| aire 'air' |au | pausa 'pause'
|ei| rey 'king' |eu | neutro 'neutral'
|oi| hoy 'today' |ou | bou 'seine fishing'
rising
[ja] hacia 'towards' [wa] cuadro 'picture'
[je] tierra 'earth' [we] fuego 'fire'

[wi] fuimos 'we went'
[jo] radio 'radio' [wo] cuota 'quota'
[ju] viuda 'widow'