Glosario / Glossary

diphthong: a complex vowel, the combination of two or more vowel sounds which functions as the central part (or nucleus) of a syllable. Generally a high [1] vowel combines with a non-high (mid [1] or low [1]) one, and the non-high vowel is pronounced louder than the high one. In phonetic transcription the less-stressed vowel sound, sometimes called a "glide", is typically written as a superscript. (Sometimes the glide is analyzed as a semivowel rather than as part of a diphthong.) The sound of English "long i" (as in "bite") is a diphthong ([aⁱ]), and the Spanish sounds "ue" ([^ue]) in "puedo", ie ([ⁱe]) in "piedra", and "au" ([a^u]) in "pauta" can also be analyzed as diphthongs. [Spanish: diptongo]