Re: Diphthongs (was Re: 3 q's - X-Sampa)

M. Astrand wrote:

B.P.Jonsson wrote:
> >I *think* the difference is that both halves of a
> >Finnish diphthong are about equally long, whereas
> >in Italian the unstressed part of the diphthong is
> >much shorter.
>
> Do you think this has something to do with the unstressed part being in
Italian
> i or u, ie. something close to j and w, whereas in Finnish it doesn't need
> to be a high vowel? I'm not sure what I'm getting at, but it seems like it
> could mean something.
> Or does Italian have diphthongs with unstressed non-high vowels?
No, but in addition to falling diphthongs (aj, aw) it has a few rising
ones-- ja, je, jo, ju -- in words like chiaro, viene, piombo, chiuso.
(Different historical origin, of course)
>
> On second thought, perhaps the same does *not* apply to Mamqian. It seems
> everything I considered to be a diphthong last time I looked into them,
has
> an /i/, /u/ or /y/ either at the beginning or at the end. I've simply
*assumed*
> that all diphthongs are stressed on the first part,......
Changing the stress to whichever part is not high
> would change the sound of the language, but not to worse...
>
Some languages have falling (and I think rising)diphthongs with ï (barred-i
[1]) and/or schwa-- Thai and Vietnamese spring to mind.

Reply