Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each item by whether it is a CLOSING diphthong, a CENTRING diphthong, or a MONOPHTHONG.
Groups: Closing diphthong · Centring diphthong · Monophthong
- The vowel of goat
- The vowel of price
- Schwa
- The vowel of see
- The vowel of near
- The vowel of square
Hints
- Ask whether the quality changes during the vowel, and if so, towards what.
- Movement towards schwa marks the centring group.
Show the answer
Closing diphthong: The vowel of price, The vowel of goat
Centring diphthong: The vowel of near, The vowel of square
Monophthong: The vowel of see, Schwa
Why
The sorting is by direction of movement, and the centring group is the historically interesting one, every member of it corresponds to a word that once had a pronounced r, which is why the group exists in some accents and not others.
Practise English Vowels II: Diphthongs and Reduction
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More questions on English Vowels II: Diphthongs and Reduction
- Schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables in English.
- How many diphthongs does the standard analysis of RP recognise?
- Why does a speaker who uses only full forms become harder to follow, not easier? Select every true statement…
- Vowel reduction is frequently mischaracterised as phonetic sloppiness, yet phonologically it is a systematic…
- Complete the account of reduction.
- The centring diphthongs of RP are stable and show no signs of change.
- Arrange the stages by which a full vowel becomes schwa in a derived word.