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Inphonetics, atriphthong (UK:/ˈtrɪfθɒŋ,ˈtrɪpθɒŋ/TRIF-thong,TRIP-thong,US:/-θɔːŋ/-thawng) (fromGreekτρίφθογγοςtriphthongos,lit. 'with three sounds' or'with three tones') is amonosyllabicvowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third. While "pure" vowels, ormonophthongs, are said to have one target articulator position,diphthongs have two and triphthongs three.
Triphthongs are not to be confused with disyllabic sequences of a diphthong followed by a monophthong, as in GermanFeuer[ˈfɔʏ.ɐ] 'fire', where the final vowel is longer than those found in triphthongs.
Triphthongs that feature close elements typically analyzed as/j/ and/w/ in phonology are not listed. For instance, thePolish wordłój[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 asłojami[wɔˈjami] (instr. pl.), and also because/w/ occurs word-finally after a consonant just like/l/ does (compareprzemysł[ˈpʂɛmɨsw] 'industry' withPrzemyśl[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 theirfeatures with those three.
Bernese German has the following triphthongs:
They have arisen due to the vocalization of/l/ in the syllable coda; compare the last two with Standard GermanGefühl[ɡəˈfyːl] andSchule[ˈʃuːlə], the last one with a schwa not present in the Bernese word.
Danish has the following triphthongs:[1]
In BritishReceived Pronunciation, and most othernon-rhotic (r-dropping) varieties of English, monosyllabic triphthongs withr are optionally distinguished from sequences with disyllabic realizations:
[aʊ̯ə̯,aɪ̯ə̯,ɔɪ̯ə̯] are sometimes transcribed as ⟨awə,ajə,ɔjə⟩, or similarly.[citation needed]
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 asplayer andslower. Less commonly, triphthongs appear as an inseparable part of a word, as iniron,society, orsour. Other instances are from loanwords or words derived from foreign sources, such asaorist,boa, andchoir.
A unique aspect ofEnglish triphthongs, as compared to other sequences of threevowels, is their shared tendency to undergo reduction via a process known assmoothing.
The last two are mostly restricted to European Spanish. InLatin American Spanish (which has no distinctvosotros form), the corresponding words arecambian[ˈkambi̯an] andcambien[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/. InHelp:IPA/Spanish, those triphthongs are transcribed ⟨wej,waj,jaj,jej⟩:[ˈbwej],[uɾuˈɣwaj],[kamˈbjajs],[kamˈbjejs]
