Diphthong

Combination of two adjacent vowel sounds This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Diphthong" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. American English pronunciation of "no highway cowboys" /noʊ ˈhaɪweɪ ˈkaʊbɔɪz/, showing five diphthongs: /oʊ, aɪ, eɪ, aʊ, ɔɪ/ A diphthong (/ˈdɪfθɒŋ, ˈdɪp-/ DIF-thong, DIP-), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most varieties of English, the phrase "no highway cowboys" (/noʊ ˈhaɪweɪ ˈkaʊbɔɪz/ noh HY-way KOW-boyz) has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound