Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Home Explore AN ACOUSTIC PHONETIC ANALYSIS OF DIPHTHONGS IN NINGBO CHINESE. 10 speakers, 5 male and 5 female, provided speech data. { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971079', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, bidderSequence: "fixed" INTRODUCTION Meixian Hakka is a dialect of the Hakka group of the Chinese language and it is the representative dialect of the Hakka group. pbjs.que = pbjs.que || []; You cannot succeed in English pronunciation by understanding alone. Translations in context of "diphthongs" in English-German from Reverso Context: Bamum has tone, vowel length, diphthongs and coda consonants. Re: Diphthongs . Vowels and Diphthongs in Cangnan Southern Min Chinese Dialect Fang Hu 1, Chunyu Ge 2 1 Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 2 Department of Linguistics, Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences hufang@cass.org.cn, gechunyu92@hotmail.com Abstract This paper gives an acoustic phonetic description of the diphthongs & triphthongs Move your mouse over the phonetic symbols and examples to listen to the pronunciation. } All Finnish diphthongs are falling. Most Australian English speakers monophthongize "-ee-" vowels. { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '387232' }}, Wide diphthongs are the opposite - they require a greater tongue movement, and their offsets are farther away from their starting points on the vowel chart. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_MidArticle' }}, { bidder: 'appnexus', params: { placementId: '11654156' }}, Based on the analysis of 50 participants recordings, it is concluded that the subjects have difficulty in pronouncing the dental fricatives /T/ and /W/ and the regular plural forms. pbjs.setConfig(pbjsCfg); Also, 4 of the monophthongs in English are simply shorter versions of other monophthongs. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_SR' }}, if(window.__tcfapi) consonants, vowels and diphthongs of Mandarin-Chinese speakers and find out problems existing in their English pronunciation. userIds: [{ Description: Report of Phonetic Research 2003 118 AN ACOUSTIC … Southern dialects tend to simplify diphthongs in speech (e.g. Achetez neuf ou d'occasion "authorization": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/auth/info?rid=READER_ID&url=CANONICAL_URL&ref=DOCUMENT_REFERRER&type=ENTRY_TRANSLATE&v1=english-chinese-traditional&v2=diphthong&v3=&v4=english-chinese-traditional&_=RANDOM", DIPHTHONGS. The correlation for all 11 diphthongs is nonsignificant. }; However, it is possible for languages to contrast [ij] and [iː]. [ia]). This categorization provides a chance to test the hypothesis of Iskarous etal. { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007', pos: 'cdo_btmslot_mobile_flex' }}, The number and form of diphthongs vary between dialects. iasLog("criterion : cdo_pc = dictionary"); googletag.pubads().setCategoryExclusion('mcp').setCategoryExclusion('resp').setCategoryExclusion('wprod'); Certain sound changes relate to diphthongs and monophthongs. bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162036', zoneId: '776156', position: 'atf' }}, is conventionally considered a diphthong. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_SR' }}, { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_leftslot' }}]}, A relevant example comes from Standard Seoul Korean, which does not have diphthongs with a falling sonority. More interestingly, we also observe that the Mandarin diphthongs are frequently retained as diphthongs in Chinese Korean, as in MA tao3 mei2 [tʰɑ̌u méi] ‘bad luck’ > CK [t*o.mei]. { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_topslot' }}]}, Only in special occasion, diphtong is put in the middle of the word (usually Chinese or new loanwords) Indonesian diphthongs – Formula – Examples { bidder: 'criteo', params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: 'cdo_leftslot' }}, { bidder: 'criteo', params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: 'cdo_btmslot' }}, Additionally, in casual speech, adjacent heterosyllabic vowels may combine into diphthongs and triphthongs or even sequences of them.[34]. var pbjs = pbjs || {}; googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(false); priceGranularity: customGranularity, bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162050', zoneId: '776336', position: 'btf' }}, { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '194852', size: [300, 250] }}, Diphthongs in English. { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007', pos: 'cdo_btmslot_mobile_flex' }}, That is, the Mandarin diphthong /ɑu/ is replaced with Chinese Korean monophthong /o/. View in Fullscreen. Some Serbo-Croatian dialects also have uo, as in kuonj, ruod, uon[45] whereas, in Standard Croatian and Serbian, these words are konj, rod, on. params: { First, make sure students have the correct understanding of diphthongs. {code: 'ad_rightslot', pubstack: { adUnitName: 'cdo_rightslot', adUnitPath: '/2863368/rightslot' }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } }, Chinese Pinyin is a Roman-letter based system that China now uses to mark the pronunciation of Chinese characters. In traditional Chinese phonetics, diphthongs are classified into two kinds, “Front Sonority” and “Back Sonority” (Wu Zhongji, 2000). (Beijing speakers often replace initial [w] with a labiodental [ʋ], except when it is followed by [o]. ) { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971065', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, name: "unifiedId", // FIXME: (temporary) - send ad requests only if PlusPopup is not shown Diphthongs. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_Billboard' }}, No words in English have the vowel sequences *[a.ɪ a.ʊ], so the non-syllabic diacritic is unnecessary. Choose other language. ga('require', 'displayfeatures'); "noPingback": true, { bidder: 'appnexus', params: { placementId: '11653860' }}, { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_rightslot' }}]}, iasLog("__tcfapi useractioncomplete or tcloaded ", tcData, success); { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '346693' }}, var mapping_houseslot_b = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([963, 0], []).addSize([0, 0], [300, 250]).build(); Meixian Hakka is spoken in northeast Guangdong Province, China. dfpSlots['houseslot_b'] = googletag.defineSlot('/2863368/houseslot', [], 'ad_houseslot_b').defineSizeMapping(mapping_houseslot_b).setTargeting('sri', '0').setTargeting('vp', 'btm').setTargeting('hp', 'center').setCategoryExclusion('house').addService(googletag.pubads()); If you need to search for diphthongs in a specific context, take a look at FONRYE program that searches a phonetic dictionary. For more detailed explanations of Gaelic diphthongs see Scottish Gaelic orthography. bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162036', zoneId: '776130', position: 'btf' }}, The non-syllabic diacritic, the inverted breve below ⟨◌̯⟩,[4] is placed under the less prominent part of a diphthong to show that it is part of a diphthong rather than a vowel in a separate syllable: [aɪ̯ aʊ̯]. At this point, your students should have heard of digraphs in their phonics lessons, and should remember that they are composed of two letters together that make one sound. Diphthongs starting with semi-consonants like /ja/ and /wo/ are excluded from the list altogether. Since we’re going from the ground level up, let’s start with the simple vowels first: a, o, e, i, u, ü If you’re having trouble sounding these Chinese vowels, here’s the American English pronunciation equivalent followed by example characters that use these simple vowels. However, it is actually [ie] in hiatus or separated by a semivowel, [ije]. The first three formants for each vowel and diphthong element were measured and spectral dynamic data were calculated for each diphthong. Phonetic Patterns in Mandarin Chinese Characters: Pinyin "a" Finals and Unrounded Diphthongs: Kraemer, Stephen M: Amazon.com.au: Books { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_rightslot_flex' }}, Watch Queue Queue. There are five diphthongs in the Oslo dialect of Norwegian, all of them falling: An additional diphthong, [ʉ͍ɪ], occurs only in the word hui in the expression i hui og hast "in great haste". pbjsCfg = { Phonetically, Spanish has seven falling diphthongs and eight rising diphthongs. { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_topslot_728x90' }}, { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195467', size: [300, 250] }}, { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_btmslot' }}]}]; Lastly, distribution of diphthongs in 40 Chinese dialects are examined, and then compared with the results of previous studies on diphthong typology. Diphthongs may be transcribed with two vowel symbols or with a vowel symbol and a semivowel symbol. 'min': 8.50, { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971063', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_Billboard' }}, There are other cases where diphthongization compensates for the loss of point of articulation features (property loss compensation) as in [ˈaɲ] ('year') vs [ˈajns] ('years'). { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971066', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, storage: { { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a9690ab01717182962182bb50ce0007', pos: 'cdo_topslot_mobile_flex' }}, googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; In words coming from Middle English, most cases of the Modern English diphthongs [aɪ̯, oʊ̯, eɪ̯, aʊ̯] originate from the Middle English long monophthongs [iː, ɔː, aː, uː] through the Great Vowel Shift, although some cases of [oʊ̯, eɪ̯] originate from the Middle English diphthongs [ɔu̯, aɪ̯]. } /uo/), which are not very common crosslinguistically compared to centering diphthongs (e.g. Edkins, Joseph 1874-05-01 00:00:00 ON inspecting the syllabary of this language, there is, at first view, a vast extension of simple vowels into diphthongs. To native speakers, they sound very similar to /ja/ and /wa/ respectively. { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195466', size: [728, 90] }}, 'increment': 0.05, syncDelay: 3000 AN ACOUSTIC PHONETIC ANALYSIS OF DIPHTHONGS IN NINGBO CHINESE. { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_rightslot_flex' }}, }, falling diphthongs; Chinese Korean; tones 1 Introduction When foreign words are borrowed into a language, they often undergo transformations in order to comply with the phonological constraints of the borrowing language. { bidder: 'appnexus', params: { placementId: '11653860' }}, 'min': 3.05, { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195466', size: [728, 90] }}, }; [7] Superscripts are especially used when an on- or off-glide is particularly fleeting.[8]. "error": true, These are only phonetic diphthongs, not phonemic diphthongs, since the vocalic pronunciation [ɐ̯] alternates with consonantal pronunciations of /r/ if a vowel follows, cf. Table 1 Standard Chinese Vowels High i y u Mid Low a Table 2 Standard Chinese Consonants Labial Dental Palatal Retroflex Velar p t k p h th kh ts (t ) tsh (t h) h [2] Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. For example, the diphthong ʌi, as in the word ‘guy’, is made from the two monophthongs ʌ and i. In phonetics, a diphthong is a vowel in which there is a noticeable sound change within the same syllable. name: "pubCommonId", { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195464', size: [160, 600] }}, It investigates how the subtle phonetic conditions of the source language affects adaptation, and if and how those phonetic effects differ in established loanwords compared to on-line adaptation of novel loan forms. The rest of the diphthongs and triphthongs are pretty much the same in both varieties of English. 'max': 8, Learn more in the Cambridge English-Chinese traditional Dictionary. ga('create', 'UA-31379-3',{cookieDomain:'dictionary.cambridge.org',siteSpeedSampleRate: 10}); googletag.pubads().set("page_url", "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/diphthong"); You can click … Thus, according to Gimson, there are 8 significant diphthongs in RP English. High. In the north, some diphthongs may be short or long according to regular vowel length rules but in the south they are always short (see Welsh phonology). diphthongs ([7]). { bidder: 'criteo', params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: 'cdo_btmslot' }}, var mapping_topslot_b = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([746, 0], [[728, 90]]).addSize([0, 0], []).build(); In some languages, diphthongs are single phonemes, while in others they are analyzed as sequences of two vowels, or of a vowel and a semivowel. userSync: { { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195451', size: [320, 50] }}, This study is a comprehensive investigation on the phonetic representations of diphthongs with their In addition to vowel nuclei following or preceding /j/ and /w/, Thai has three diphthongs which exist as long-short pairs:[47]. }, { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971079', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, With this model, diphthongs from 38 Chinese dialects are fitted and described. 'increment': 0.01, Romanian has two true diphthongs: /e̯a/ and /o̯a/. There are, however, a host of other vowel combinations (more than any other major Romance language) which are classified as vowel glides. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_HDX' }}, { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195464', size: [300, 600] }}, { bidder: 'criteo', params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: 'cdo_topslot' }}, ga('set', 'dimension3', "default"); In Indonesian, there are originally only three diphthongs, which are ‘ai, ‘au, and ‘oi’. That is to say, Chinese Pinyin is a way to represent Chinese characters and express the sounds in Chinese language using the alphabet. Find more Japanese words at wordhippo.com! if(success && (tcData.eventStatus === 'useractioncomplete' || tcData.eventStatus === 'tcloaded')) { The diphthong system in Northern Sami varies considerably from one dialect to another. { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195464', size: [120, 600] }}, { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '194852', size: [300, 250] }}, bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162036', zoneId: '776140', position: 'atf' }}, ON DIPHTHONGS IN THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. The mid vowel can change frontness and rounding depending on the environment. { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_leftslot' }}]}, [citation needed]. var pbDesktopSlots = [ [16] The English word yes, for example, consists of a palatal glide followed by a monophthong rather than a rising diphthong. { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195467', size: [300, 50] }}, The non-syllabic diacritic is used only when necessary. { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '387232' }}, var googletag = googletag || {}; Seumas). This is possible because there is no ambiguity in interpreting a sequence like yao/-iao as /iau/, and potentially problematic sequences such as */iu/ do not occur. However, harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFChitoran2001 (, harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFLleó1970 (, harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFWheeler1979 (, harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFWheeler2005 (, harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFMascaró2002 (, harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFBarbosaAlbano2004 (, Learn how and when to remove this template message, International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects, Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003, "Štokavsko narječje: prostiranje i osnovne značajke", Minister of Education and Culture Decree No: 50/2015, "The phonology and morphology of Romanian diphthongization", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diphthong&oldid=988515430, Articles with Croatian-language sources (hr), Articles needing additional references from June 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2010, Articles containing Serbo-Croatian-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 13 November 2020, at 17:27. pbjs.que.push(function() { pid: '94' I don't know the full … With this model, diphthongs from 38 Chinese dialects are fitted and described. Catalan possesses a number of phonetic diphthongs, all of which begin (rising diphthongs) or end (falling diphthongs) in [j] or [w]. "login": { FutureSpy wrote:BTW, just out of curiosity: what was the nationality of people in Malaysia during British rule? Thus, lower can be transcribed ⟨ˈloʊ.ər⟩, with a period separating the first syllable, /loʊ/, from the second syllable, /ər/. { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195464', size: [160, 600] }}, For example, Samoan contrasts low-to-mid with low-to-high diphthongs: Narrow diphthongs are the ones that end with a vowel which on a vowel chart is quite close to the one that begins the diphthong, for example Northern Dutch [eɪ], [øʏ] and [oʊ]. if(!isPlusPopupShown()) However, when the diphthong is analysed as a single phoneme, both elements are often transcribed with vowel symbols (/aɪ̯/, /ɪ̯a/). var mapping_rightslot = googletag.sizeMapping().addSize([746, 0], [[300, 250]]).addSize([0, 0], []).build(); The low vowel can change frontness but not rounding. The most important thing about diphthongs in English is that they are not simply two vowels that go together, but one long vowel where the pronunciation changes from the beginning to … Numbers in brackets indicate vowels or consonants found only in dialects or loan words. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("sfr", "cdo_dict_english-chinese-traditional"); dfpSlots['houseslot_a'] = googletag.defineSlot('/2863368/houseslot', [300, 250], 'ad_houseslot_a').defineSizeMapping(mapping_houseslot_a).setTargeting('sri', '0').setTargeting('vp', 'mid').setTargeting('hp', 'right').setCategoryExclusion('house').addService(googletag.pubads()); pbjsCfg.consentManagement = { const customGranularity = { 1. You can publish your book online for free in a few minutes! The less prominent component in the diphthong may also be transcribed as an approximant, thus [aj] in eye and [ja] in yard. Test material and recording In this study, the 5 vowels, 11 diphthongs and 4 triphthongs in Meixian Hakka were recorded for }); [ai]); in opening diphthongs, the second element is more open (e.g. (Note that "falling" and "rising" in this context do not refer to vowel height; for that, the terms "opening" and "closing" are used instead. {code: 'ad_btmslot_a', pubstack: { adUnitName: 'cdo_btmslot', adUnitPath: '/2863368/btmslot' }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 250]] } }, In addition to these, the semivowels /j/ and /w/ can be combined (either before, after, or both) with most vowels, while this arguably[42] forms additional diphthongs and triphthongs, only /e̯a/ and /o̯a/ can follow an obstruent-liquid cluster such as in broască ('frog') and dreagă ('to mend'),[43] implying that /j/ and /w/ are restricted to the syllable boundary and therefore, strictly speaking, do not form diphthongs. 'min': 31, METHOD 2.1. Among the vowels, [a] seems to be resistant to the effect of centralization. window.ga=window.ga||function(){(ga.q=ga.q||[]).push(arguments)};ga.l=+new Date; { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_btmslot' }}]}]; if(refreshConfig.enabled == true) Hacking Chinese Tips and strategies for how to learn Chinese more efficiently Popup Chinese Translator Understand Chinese inside any Windows application, website or PDF. var pbTabletSlots = [ bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162036', zoneId: '776130', position: 'btf' }}, Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. Even syllables containing a single vowel can contain a diphthong. Notably, Finnish has true opening diphthongs (e.g. 34 posts Previous; 1; 2; 3; SimL Posts: 1407 Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:33 am Location: Amsterdam. ON DIPHTHONGS IN THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. Noté /5. The dialectologists have argued whether some vowel sounds in Suzhou Chinese were diphthongs or monophthongs for many years. {code: 'ad_leftslot', pubstack: { adUnitName: 'cdo_leftslot', adUnitPath: '/2863368/leftslot' }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[120, 600], [160, 600], [300, 600]] } }, } "sign-out": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/auth/signout?rid=READER_ID" Phonetics Lab, Department of Chinese, Translation, and Linguistics, City University of Hong Kong ABSTRACT The study is an acoustical analysis of the diphthongs in Hong Kong Cantonese spoken by young adult undergraduates, male and female. { bidder: 'appnexus', params: { placementId: '11654174' }}, Traductions en contexte de "diphthongs" en anglais-français avec Reverso Context : There has always been a tendency towards vowel reduction both in hiatus and diphthongs. Browse our dictionary apps today and ensure you are never again lost for words. Learners find diphthongs difficult because producing them is a motor skill (like body building!) Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English, 0 && stateHdr.searchDesk ? The following diphthongs are used in the Standard Written Form of Cornish. { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '446381' }}, Hacking Chinese Tips and strategies for how to learn Chinese more efficiently Popup Chinese Translator Understand Chinese inside any Windows application, website or PDF. params: { The diphthongs represent mean values of the four Chinese speakers. dfpSlots['rightslot'] = googletag.defineSlot('/2863368/rightslot', [[300, 250]], 'ad_rightslot').defineSizeMapping(mapping_rightslot).setTargeting('sri', '0').setTargeting('vp', 'mid').setTargeting('hp', 'right').addService(googletag.pubads()); { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195467', size: [320, 100] }}, Y and w are semi-vowels: Indonesian language, has four native diphthong and may be located at the beginning, middle and end of the words. Many centering diphthongs are also opening diphthongs ([iə̯], [uə̯]). It is typically omitted when there is no ambiguity, as in ⟨haɪ kaʊ⟩. bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162036', zoneId: '776156', position: 'atf' }}, googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { if (!event.isEmpty && event.slot.renderCallback) { event.slot.renderCallback(event); } }); Group 2 are reflexes that occur before -ll, -m, -nn, -bh, -dh, -gh and -mh. In most dialects of English, the phrase no highway cowboys has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. bids: [{ bidder: 'rubicon', params: { accountId: '17282', siteId: '162036', zoneId: '776160', position: 'atf' }}, { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '346693' }}, Some languages contrast short and long diphthongs. { bidder: 'appnexus', params: { placementId: '11654208' }}, This study examines how Mandarin falling sonority diphthongs are adapted to a dialect of Chinese Korean. { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_topslot' }}]}, Chinese dialects are generally known as having a rich inventory of diphthongs, and typically there are both falling and rising diphthongs. { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971080', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, Chinese dialects are generally known as having a rich inventory of diphthongs, and typically there are both falling and rising diphthongs. If needed, the input method is also described. { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_topslot' }}]}, At this point, your students should have heard of digraphs in their phonics lessons, and should remember that they are composed of two letters together that make one sound. They are a combination of two vowel sounds that, when spoken, blur into each other forming a single syllable is about the best definition there is. See below.) Other common indications that the two sounds are not separate vowels are a superscript, ⟨aᶦ aᶷ⟩,[5] or a tie bar, ⟨a͡ɪ a͡ʊ⟩ or ⟨a͜ɪ a͜ʊ⟩. The second table includes only 'false' diphthongs, composed of a semivowel + a vowel, not two vowels. diphthong definition: 1. a vowel sound in which the tongue changes position to produce the sound of two vowels 2. a vowel…. Chinese (Mandarin), Phonology of (For Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition, Elsevier Publishing House) ... Shanghai has lost all diphthongs, and its tonal inventory has reduced to just two.