Re: Not YAEPT: English diphthongs

I speak the English of the Greater Manchester area and I've got monophthings
in words such as <great> [grE:t], <face> [fE:s], <boat> [bO:t], <nose>
[nO:z]; I've got the diphthongs /ai/ in <side> [sa:Id], /au/ in <about>
[8"b3Y?]; /oi/ in <boy> [bO:I], and various schwa-diphthongs where
historical post-vocalic /r/ was dropped. Some words that I would assign to
the phoneme /ai/ have a monophthongal allophone as I frequently say [a] for
unstressed <I>. I've also got two syllables in words like <fire> ["faIj8].

Dan



-----Original Message-----
From: Mark J. Reed
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:05 AM



"In English, three of the so-called "long vowels" (FACE, PRICE, and GOAT)
are usually realized as diphthongs, but most speakers are unaware of the
fact.  Meanwhile, there are at least two diphthongs (CHOICE, MOUTH) that
seem to be generally perceived as such. What do we know about this
perceptual distinction? Is it purely a learned thing, or do even uneducated
speakers think that there's a qualitative difference between those sets of
sounds?



I've always heard CHOICE, in particular, as almost bisyllabic."

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