There are three front closing diphthongs in Southern English Standard Pronunciation; they occur in the following words and name: lake, like and Lloyd.

In the first one, lake, the tongue does not move a great deal, but you can nevertheless feel the movement as you imitate the vowel sound by itself "a….e". Its symbol is a double one, indicating the positions of the tongue at the beginning and at the end of the movement: / eI /. The [ e ] indicates a tongue position a little closer than the English / e / and more like the vowel in the French word thé (German Tee, etc). And the second part [ I ] indicates the position of the tongue at the end of the diphthongal movement.

Say the vowel slowly, to give yourself time to feel the movement of the tongue: [ eeeII ]. Thus, lake is transcribed

You can now transcribe: bake, take, cake, make, sake, hake, wake, rake

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And the following words spelt with < ay >: pay, day, gay, hay, lay, stray

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And these with < ai >: aim, paid, main, rail, saint, quaint

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And the word: eight ____

Now these homophones: way / whey / weigh ____

wait / weight ____

strait / straight ____

tail / tale ____

grate / great ____

brake / break ____

stake / steak ____

Wales / whales / wails ____

Transcribe these names: May, Mavis, David, Ray

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In the North of England, Scotland and Wales, an alternative standard pronunciation is heard, in which there is no diphthongal movement at all, but a long monophthong – just like the vowel in the French word thé, German Tee, etc. This vowel would be transcribed as / e: /. Listen to it in the following few examples:

The second front closing diphthong appears in the word like. The symbol has already been mentioned: / aI /, which indicates a beginning position of the tongue like the / æ / and an ending like / I /. Say the word I / eye / aye in slow motion again: / aaaII /. Thus like is transcribed

An easy way to draw the [ a ] symbol is to start at the top left point and draw a rising curve to the right followed immediately by a steep descent. Then you return halfway up the descent and draw a rising curve to the left, and complete a circle to the base of the original descent

The homophones I, eye, aye are transcribed simply as / aI /.

Now you can transcribe: pike, bike, wipe, bite, wide, rhyme, nice

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and these: lie, tie, die, pie, my, sty, cry, why, spry

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and these with < igh >: high, light, bright, might, plight, height, tight

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and these homophones

rite / write / right / wright ____

die / dye ____

rye / wry ____

by / buy / bye ____

stile / style ____

white / Wight ____

dike / dyke ____

night / knight ____

And these names: Mike, Di, Diane, Clive ___________________________

The third front closing diphthong occurs in the name Lloyd. In this case, not only does the tongue move, but the lips change shape too. The tongue moves from the position for the / O: / vowel to the position for the / I /. Thus, the symbol is / OI / and Lloyd is transcribed

You can now transcribe: void, voice, noise, coin, quoit

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and these words with < oy >: boy, coy, ploy, toy _____________________

and these names: Lois, Roy, Troy ____________________

And another kwik tEst (5)

ale isle oil ____ ____ ____

bay by/buy boy ____ ____ ____

Kate kite quoit ____ ____ ____

tray try Troy ____ ____ ____

paint pint point ____ ____ ____ (See Key)

There are just two back closing diphthongs: they occur in the words load and loud.

The first one, as in load, has a number of variations, but the main one in Southern English Standard Pronunciation has the tongue beginning in a central position and finishing like / U / or / u: /. The IPA symbol for the initial position of the tongue is like an upturned, inverted < e >: [ @ ]; this symbol is called shwa. To draw it, you start from the top left point, draw a reverse < c > symbol, and then loop back to the middle.

The whole symbol is / @U /. Load is thus transcribed as

Now you can transcribe: toad, oats, boat, goat, float, gloat, bloat, roam

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and the words: go, foe, low, slow, snow, grow

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and the words: own, stone, bone, poke, rogue, stove, stroke, comb

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Now the homophones rode / road ____

know / no ____

broach / brooch____

toe / tow ____

doe / dough ____

lone / loan ____

Flo / flow ____

There is an important variation to the / @U / vowel in Southern English Standard Pronunciation, before the consonant / l /. In this case, the tongue begins in the position for the / Q / vowel, and moves to / U /. Listen to the two pronunciations of the word OLD: the standard / @U l d / and the alternative / QU l d /. This variation in the pronunciation of the vowel occurs only before the consonant / l / in the same syllable. Transcribe the two versions of the following words: cold, bolt, toll

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and the homophones: hole / whole ____ ____

role / roll ____ ____

sole / soul ____ ____

In addition to this variation in Southern English Standard, a quite different sound to this vowel is heard in Northern English, Scottish and Welsh Standard pronunciations and sounds like the long monophthong in the French word chaud (‘hot’), German so, Welsh lôn. It is transcribed in IPA as the letter <o> with length marks: / o: /. Listen to the following few examples:

The other back closing diphthong, as in loud, has a tongue movement which begins close to the beginning of / aI / but moves in the direction of / U / or / u:/. Thus its symbol is / aU / and loud is transcribed as

Now transcribe: proud, cloud, crowd, scout, sprout, house, found, count

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and these words: how, now, brown, cow ______________________

Notice the two pronunciations of these homographs, which rhyme either with prow or with crow: transcribe the two possibilities

row ____ ____

bow ____ ____

sow ____ ____

Another kwIk tEst (6)

now no/know ____ ____

town tone ____ ____

stout stoat ____ ____

found phoned feigned find ____ ____ ____ ____

fowl foal fail file foil

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Finally, the three centring diphthongs, which appear in the words, leer, lair and moor. In the first case, the tongue begins near the / I / or / i: / position and moves to the central area; the symbol is a combination of / I / and shwa: / I@ /. Thus, leer is transcribed

And now you can transcribe: ear, gear, near, rear, mere, sneer, queer, beard

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and the homophones: peer / pier ____

beer / bier ____

deer/ dear ____

here / hear ____

The word YEAR has two pronunciations; listen and transcribe them both: year.

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Transcribe the names: Nia, Ian / Iain ____ ____

The second centring diphthong, as in lair, has the tongue in the position for the vowel / e / before it moves to the central area. The symbol is a combination of / e / and shwa: / e @ /. Thus lair is transcribed

Using the Greek letter / e / and schwa / @ /, transcribe:

air, dare, care, rare, square, prayer _________________________________

and the homophones fair / fare ____

flair / flare ____

hair / hare ____

bear / bare ____

wear / where ____

mare / mayor ____

and the two pronunciations of the homograph TEAR; transcribe them both.

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A noticeable change in the pronunciation of this vowel is taking place in England and Wales, particularly among the younger generation who otherwise speak with a standard accent; the diphthongal pronunciation is giving way to a long monophthongal / e : /. Listen to the difference between the traditional diphthong and this modern variation in the word LAIR: / l e @ / and / l e : /. Here are some more examples; transcribe them in both ways:

dare, square, care ____ ____ ____

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and the name Clare / Claire ____ ____

Compare and transcribe these pairs of words:

pear peer ____ ____

stair steer ____ ____

bear beer ____ ____

hair hear ____ ____

fare fear ____ ____

The third centring diphthong, as in moor, has the tongue in the position for

/ U /, before it moves to the central area. The symbol is a combination of / U / and / @ /: / U@ /. Thus, moor is transcribed

You can now transcribe: poor, tour, boor, dour _____________________

However, there is a very strong tendency among the younger generation to replace this diphthong entirely – mainly by substituting it with the long monophthong / O: /. Thus moor becomes homophonous with more, poor with paw / pour / pore, tour with tore, and boor with bore. Similarly the word SURE is now much more commonly pronounced as homophonous with shore, rather than with the diphthong / U@ /.

However, the alternative pronunciation of dour does not follow this pattern; it is not / d O: / (‘door’), but / d aU @ / and produces a homophone with DOWER.

In rhotic accents, the centring diphthongs do not exist as such, since the final letter < r > is pronounced. In these accents the words leer, lair and moor are pronounced with an equivalent short vowel and a final / r / as / l I r /, / l e r / and / m U r /.

And a kwIk tEst (7) on the centring diphthongs

tier tare tour ____ ____ ____

mere mayor moor ____ ____ ____

spear spare spoor ____ ____ ____

speed speared sped spared ____ ____ ____ ____

bead beard bed bared ____ ____ ____ ____

feed feared fed fared ____ ____ ____ ____ (See Key)