English Language & Usage Asked on August 13, 2021
I have read in different places that the latter glide-like realization is the only one that exists in American English. Is this a regional thing? If yes, would you say it occurs in western US English?
I can’t even hear the difference between the two sounds and the second one (if it exists) just sounds like a pure [i] sound to me.
All tense vowel phonemes in English have inconsequential phonetic offglides at their ends. This is just as true of /i/ and /u/ as it is of /e/ and /o/.
It doesn't change which vowel is perceived to have been said, so we seldom bother writing it out except for in the very narrowest of [phonetic] transcriptions and nearly always ignore these in broad /phonemic/ ones.
Because these are little phonological effects that are applied automatically and almost impossible to suppress, we don't even think about them, let alone write them down. They happen because of how we articulate English: most of us never maintain the same level tenseness of the vowel throughout its entire articulation. We relax or tighten it a bit on the way out, or sometimes on the way in. Or both. It isn’t usually constant.
(This strongly contrasts with languages like Spanish and Italian, where you can have a tense vowel that stays tense always. Spanish has only tense/close vowels, although Italian also has a pair of lax/open ones.)
The English Wikipedia article on diphthongs represents these in broad terms in this fashion:
Standard English diphthongs
Word English diaphoneme RP (British) Australian GenAm Canadian low //oʊ// [əʊ̯] [əʉ̯] [o̞ʊ̯]¹ [o̞ʊ̯]¹ loud //aʊ// [aʊ̯] [æɔ̯] [aʊ̯~æʊ̯] [aʊ̯~æʊ̯]² lout //aʊ// [aʊ̯] [æɔ̯] [aʊ̯~æʊ̯] [ʌʊ̯]³ lied //aɪ// [aɪ̯] [ɑɪ̯] [äɪ̯]⁴ [äɪ̯]⁴ light //aɪ// [aɪ̯] [ɑɪ̯] [ʌɪ̯]³ [ʌɪ̯]³ lay //eɪ// [eɪ̯] [æɪ̯] [eɪ̯]¹ [eɪ̯]¹ loin //ɔɪ// [ɔɪ̯] [oɪ̯] [ɔɪ̯] [ɔɪ̯] loon /uː/⁵ [ʊu̯] [ʉː] [ʉu̯] [ʉu̯] lean /iː/⁵ [ɪi̯] [ɪi̯] [i] [i] leer //ɪər// [ɪə̯] [ɪə̯]⁶ [ɪɹ] [ɪɹ] lair //ɛər// [ɛə̯]⁷ [eː] [ɛɹ] [ɛɹ] lure //ʊər// [ʊə̯]⁷ [ʊə̯] [ʊɹ] [ʊɹ]
- In Scottish, Upper Midwestern, and California English, /oʊ̯/ is monophthongal [oː].
- In Pittsburgh English, /aʊ̯/ is monophthongal [aː], leading to the stereotypical spelling “Dahntahn” for “downtown”.
- Canadian English and some dialects of northern American English exhibit allophony of /aʊ̯/ and /aɪ̯/ called Canadian raising – in some places they have become separate phonemes. GA and RP have raising to a lesser extent in /aɪ̯/.
- In several American dialects such as Southern American English, /aɪ̯/ becomes monophthongal [aː] except before voiceless consonants.
- The erstwhile monophthongs /iː/ and /uː/ are diphthongized in many dialects. In many cases they might be better transcribed as [uu̯] and [ii̯], where the non-syllabic element is understood to be closer than the syllabic element. They are sometimes transcribed /uw/ and /ij/.
- Most Australian English speakers monophthongize “-ee-” vowels. However, Western Australian English is an exception, as it generally features centring diphthongs in words like fear and beard. See: Macquarie University, 2010, Regional Accents (30 January 2015).
- In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to [ɛː] and [oː] respectively (Roach (2004:240)).
John Lawler pointed out the same thing which we see Wikipedia mention in their footnote 5, where they explain that /i/ and /u/ might be better transcribed as [uu̯] and [ii̯] and which are sometimes transcribed /uw/ and /ij/, when he wrote in a comment:
Oh, it's quite standard and has even been used for Trager-Smith phonemic notation. If you use /iy/ for [i] and /i/ for [ɪ], you can use just ASCII for tense/lax vowels.
Unfortunately, that shows only one version for each broad set that itself comprises numerous dialects within its umbrella. In practice, they’re all a little different in each of those dialects.
For details like that you can consult the online Sound Comparisons website, which includes both narrow phonetic transcriptions as well as actual recordings of native speakers speaking each word in isolation. I recommend you consult their numerous renditions for such words as:
Because those narrow transcriptions are nearly impossible for non-specialists to decipher, here are some examples they provide along with what each symbol means:
s voiceless alveolar sibilant U+0073 LATIN SMALL LETTER S
ɪ near-close near-front unrounded vowel U+026A LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL I
iˑ close front unrounded vowel U+0069 LATIN SMALL LETTER I
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
θ voiceless dental fricative U+03B8 GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
ɹ voiced alveolar approximant U+0279 LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED R
ɪ̠ˑ near-close near-front unrounded vowel U+026A LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL I
retracted U+0320 COMBINING MINUS SIGN BELOW
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
iˑ close front unrounded vowel U+0069 LATIN SMALL LETTER I
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
tʰ voiceless alveolar plosive U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T
aspirated U+02B0 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL H
ʊ̟ near-close near-back rounded vowel U+028A LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON
advanced U+031F COMBINING PLUS SIGN BELOW
uˑ close back rounded vowel U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
tʰ voiceless alveolar plosive U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T
aspirated U+02B0 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL H
ʉ̞ close central rounded vowel U+0289 LATIN SMALL LETTER U BAR
lowered U+031E COMBINING DOWN TACK BELOW
ÿˑ close front rounded vowel U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
centralized U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
n voiced alveolar nasal U+006E LATIN SMALL LETTER N
j voiced palatal approximant U+006A LATIN SMALL LETTER J
ʊ near-close near-back rounded vowel U+028A LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON
uˑ close back rounded vowel U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
n voiced alveolar nasal U+006E LATIN SMALL LETTER N
ɵ̜ˑ close-mid central rounded vowel U+0275 LATIN SMALL LETTER BARRED O
less rounded U+031C COMBINING LEFT HALF RING BELOW
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ÿˑ close front rounded vowel U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
centralized U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
tʰ voiceless alveolar plosive U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T
aspirated U+02B0 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL H
ʌ̝̈ near-open central unrounded vowel U+028C LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED V
raised U+031D COMBINING UP TACK BELOW
centralized U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS
oˑ close-mid back rounded vowel U+006F LATIN SMALL LETTER O
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
tʰ voiceless alveolar plosive U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T
aspirated U+02B0 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL H
œ̈ˑ open-mid front rounded vowel U+0153 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE
centralized U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ÿ close front rounded vowel U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
centralized U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS
d voiced alveolar plosive U+0064 LATIN SMALL LETTER D
ɛ̝ˑ open-mid front unrounded vowel U+025B LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E
raised U+031D COMBINING UP TACK BELOW
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ɪ near-close near-front unrounded vowel U+026A LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL I
ˈ primary stress U+02C8 MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE
n voiced alveolar nasal U+006E LATIN SMALL LETTER N
ɛ̞ˑ open-mid front unrounded vowel U+025B LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN E
lowered U+031E COMBINING DOWN TACK BELOW
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ɪ near-close near-front unrounded vowel U+026A LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL I
k voiceless velar plosive U+006B LATIN SMALL LETTER K
ɪ near-close near-front unrounded vowel U+026A LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL I
d voiced alveolar plosive U+0064 LATIN SMALL LETTER D
w U+0077 LATIN SMALL LETTER W
ɔ̞ˑ open-mid back rounded vowel U+0254 LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O
lowered U+031E COMBINING DOWN TACK BELOW
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ʃ voiceless postalveolar fricative U+0283 LATIN SMALL LETTER ESH
ɔˑ open-mid back rounded vowel U+0254 LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O
half-long U+02D1 MODIFIER LETTER HALF TRIANGULAR COLON
ə mid-central vowel U+0259 LATIN SMALL LETTER SCHWA
ɫ velarized alveolar lateral approximant U+026B LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH MIDDLE TILDE
Correct answer by tchrist on August 13, 2021
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