Triphthong

A triphthong is a long sound which is comprised of three combined vowel sounds in a single syllable. Some speakers break triphthongs into two syllables, a diphthong and a schwa.

Examples

A dot signals syllable boundary.

• /aʊə/: hour /aʊər/ and also /ˈaʊ.ər/. Compare with power, always /ˈpaʊ.ər/.
• /aɪə/: fire /faɪər/ and also /ˈfaɪ.ər/. Compare with liar, always /ˈlaɪ.ər/.
• /jʊə/: cure /kjʊər/ and also /ˈkjuː.ər/. Compare with fewer, always /ˈfjuː.ər/.

The following words are almost always heard as disyllables:

• /eɪə/: player /ˈpleɪ.ər/ could be pronounced /pleɪər/
• /ɔɪə/: royal /ˈrɔɪ.əl/ could be pronounced /rɔɪəl/
• /əʊə/: lower /ˈloʊ.ər/ could be pronounced /loʊər/

Rising triphthongs

A rising triphthong begins with a semivowel [j] or [w]. In English rising triphthongs are normally analyzed as sequences of two phonemes. There are many rising triphthongs in English, as /j/ and /w/ can combine with many diphthongs.

• /jəʊ/: yoga
• /jɪə/: year
• /jʊə/: cure
• /waɪ/: quite
• /waʊ/: wow
• /weə/: square
• /weɪ/: way
• /wəʊ/: quote
• /wɪə/: weird

Note

Linguist John Wells thinks there are no triphthongs in English, and in all cases there are two syllables.^[1] This means that the difference between liar /ˈlaɪ.ər/^[2] and lyre /laɪər/^[3] does not exist: many people agree that these two words are homophones. Note that Wells considers cure /kjʊər/ to be a monosyllable, but not a triphthong, because /j/ is a semivowel and not a vowel.

References

See also

• Diphthong
• Monophthong