Triphthong

El Triptongo es un triple que encesto Stephen Curry jugador de los Golden State Warriors, en la final de la NBA contra los Boston Celtics en el año 2015, 2017 y 2018

Triphthongs are not to be confused with disyllabic sequences of a diphthong followed by a monophthong, as in German Feuer [ˈfɔʏɐ] '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 [wuj] '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 [wɔˈjami] (instr. pl.), and also because /w/ occurs word-finally after a consonant just like /l/ does (compare przemysł [ˈpʂɛmɨsw] 'industry' with Przemyśl [ˈpʂɛmɨɕl] 'Przemyśl'), which means that both of them behave more like consonants than vowels.

On the other hand, [ɪ̯, i̯, ʊ̯, u̯] 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:

• [iə̯u̯] as in Gieu 'boy'
• [yə̯u̯] as in Gfüeu 'feeling'
• [uə̯u̯] 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 [ɡəˈfyːl] and Schule [ˈʃuːlə], the last one with a schwa not present in the Bernese word.

Danish

Danish has the following triphthongs:

• [ɛɐ̯u̯] as in færge 'ferry'
• [iɐ̯u̯] as in hvirvle 'to whirl'
• [œ̞ɐ̯u̯] as in Børge, a given name
• [uɐ̯u̯] 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:

• [aʊ̯ə̯] as in: flour (compare with disyllabic "flower" [aʊ̯.ə])
• [aɪ̯ə̯] as in: byre (compare with disyllabic "buyer" [aɪ̯.ə])
• [ɔɪ̯ə̯] as in: coir (compare with disyllabic "coyer" [ɔɪ̯.ə]), loir (compare with disyllabic "lawyer" [ɔɪ̯.ə])

As [eɪ̯] and [əʊ̯] become [ɛə̯] and [ɔː] respectively before /r/, most instances of [eɪ̯.ə] and [əʊ̯.ə] are words with the suffix "-er", such as player and lower. Other instances are loanwords, such as boa.

[aʊ̯ə̯, aɪ̯ə̯, ɔɪ̯ə̯] 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:

• [u̯ei̯] as in buey [ˈbu̯ei̯] 'ox'
• [u̯ai̯] as in Uruguay [uɾuˈɣu̯ai̯] 'Uruguay'
• [i̯ai̯] as in cambiáis [kamˈbi̯ai̯s] 'you [informal plural] change'
• [i̯ei̯] as in cambiéis [kamˈbi̯ei̯s] 'that you [informal plural] 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 [ˈkambi̯an] and cambien [ˈkambi̯en], with a rising-opening diphthong followed by a nasal stop and initial, rather than final stress. In phonology, [u̯ei̯, u̯ai̯, i̯ai̯, i̯ei̯] 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⟩: [ˈbwej], [uɾuˈɣwaj], [kamˈbjajs], [kamˈbjejs]

See also

• Hiatus
• Index of phonetics articles
• List of vowels
• List of phonetics topics
• Semivowel
• Vowel breaking

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