Friendship
Senior 4 · English
Friendship
Lesson 4 of 5
20 min
Say Hi! How are you? I'm fine. Shall we go home now? slowly, and watch your mouth in a mirror. In almost every word, your jaw and tongue move during the vowel: hi slides from an open /a/ towards /ɪ/, go from a central /ə/ towards /ʊ/. A vowel that glides from one position to another inside one syllable is a diphthong, and standard British English has eight of them.
Kinyarwanda works differently. It has five vowel qualities, a, e, i, o and u, each of which can be short or long, and each one is a pure vowel: the tongue holds one position. A Kinyarwanda speaker of English therefore tends to hold the first half of an English diphthong and drop the glide, so that phone sounds like "fon" and late like "let". The listener hears a different word, or no word at all. This lesson puts the glide back, using the vocabulary of friendship.
Definition
| Sound | Glide | Friendship words | Common spellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| /eɪ/ | /e/ → /ɪ/ | mate, stay, praise, great, they | a–e, ay, ai, ey, eigh (eight), ea in great, break |
| /aɪ/ | /a/ → /ɪ/ | kind, smile, quiet, reply, buy | i–e, i, y, igh (high), uy, eye |
| /ɔɪ/ | /ɔ/ → /ɪ/ | loyal, choice, voice, enjoy, annoy | oi (middle of a word), oy (end of a word or before a vowel) |
| /əʊ/ | /ə/ → /ʊ/ | phone, alone, joke, know, owe | o–e, o, ow, oa (coat), ou in though, soul |
| /aʊ/ | /a/ → /ʊ/ | shout, proud, crowd, how, allowed | ou, ow |
| /ɪə/ | /ɪ/ → /ə/ | near, dear, cheer, idea, year | ear, eer, ere (here), ea in idea |
| /eə/ | /e/ → /ə/ | share, care, fair, their, scared | are, air, ear (bear, wear), eir, ere (where) |
| /ʊə/ | /ʊ/ → /ə/ | tour, pure, cure, sure | our, ure |
A finer point. Many younger speakers in Britain now say /eə/ as a long pure vowel, [ɛː], and say sure and poor with /ɔː/ rather than /ʊə/. Dictionaries such as the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries give both pronunciations of sure. Either is correct; what matters is that share does not sound like sheer.
| Spelling | Sounds | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ow | /aʊ/ or /əʊ/ | now, crowd /aʊ/ · know, show /əʊ/ · row: /raʊ/ an angry argument, /rəʊ/ a line of seats |
| ear | /ɪə/, /eə/, /ɜː/ or /ɑː/ | near, dear /ɪə/ · bear, wear /eə/ · learn, heard /ɜː/ · heart /ɑː/ |
| ea | /iː/, /e/, /eɪ/ or /ɪə/ | team /iː/ · head /e/ · great, break /eɪ/ · idea /ɪə/ |
| ou | /aʊ/, /ʌ/, /uː/ or /əʊ/ | proud /aʊ/ · trouble /ʌ/ · group, soup /uː/ · though /əʊ/ |
Worked example: finding the diphthongs in a sentence
Sentence: I hope they enjoy their day out.
Warning
Don't flatten the glide. Without it, a diphthong turns into a pure vowel, and many words become other words:
| Diphthong | Flattened, it sounds like … |
|---|---|
| late /leɪt/, wait /weɪt/ | let /let/, wet /wet/ |
| note /nəʊt/, coat /kəʊt/ | not /nɒt/, cot /kɒt/ |
| bike /baɪk/ | back /bæk/ |
| found /faʊnd/ | fond /fɒnd/ |
Tip
Strong start, soft finish. The first part of a diphthong is longer and louder; the second is a quick, light glide. Say day as "DEH-ih" squeezed into one beat, not two equal vowels and not one flat "de".
How to pronounce diphthongs in British English, Pronunciation with Emma (under 2 minutes, 2018). Pause after each sound, repeat it, and add one friendship word of your own for each diphthong.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Quick check
Which word has the diphthong /ɔɪ/?
