Describe the English diphthongs and triphthongs.

English sounds can be divided into two categories; consonant sounds and vowel sounds. In vowel, there are several types including pure vowels, diphthongs, and also triphthongs. In this paper, we will discuss about the diphthongs and the triphthongs. First, we will talk about the diphthongs. English diphthongs are sounds that consist of two vowels that glide from one another (Roach P., 2009). There are 13 diphthongs in English sounds and they are basically two vowels pronounced as a single vowel (Spencer A., 2005). For example, we pronounce the word ear as / /. We can see that there are a diphthong and it consists of vowel / / and / /. The way we pronounce it as / /, then glide to the vowel / /. Another example is the word air which is pronounced as / /. In this case, the vowel / / is pronounced first, then we glide to the vowel / /. The diphthongs can be divided into two categories; centring diphthongs and closing diphthongs. Centring diphthongs are diphthongs that glide towards / / (schwa) and they are / u / as in tour, / / as in ear, and / e / as in scarce. In the vowel chart, we can see that the movement of these diphthongs are towards the owemiddle part. This is why they are called centring diphthongs. Other type of diphthongs is the closing diphthongs. They are the diphthongs that end with a glide towards a closer vowel (Roach P., 2009). This type of diphthongs can be further analysed into two categories; diphthongs that glide towards / / sound such as / e / as in pain and towards / / sound such as / / as in load (Roach P., 2009). In pronouncing the diphthongs, there are certain problems that we must consider, for example, problem in deciding when we have a diphthong (such as [ai], [a] on British descriptions) and when we have a vowel + glide sequence (for falling diphthongs), as with the usual American description for vowels such as [aj] and [aw]. (Spencer A., 2005). Now, we will discuss about the triphthongs. Triphthongs are vowels that consist of three vowels and they glide from one to another, rapidly produced without any interruption (Roach P., 2009). There are 5 triphthongs in the English sound and they are / e i / as in player, / a i e / as in fire, / i / as in royal, / / as in

lower, and / a / as in hour (Roach P., 2009). Based on these triphthongs, we can conclude that they are ended with / / (schwa) sound. When we pronounce these diphthongs, we can realise that the vowels that we utter are gliding from one to another. In conclusion, the diphthongs and the triphthongs are sounds that consist of more than one vowel qualities and they have distinctive characteristics that make them unique and different from other sounds. (510 words)