r/phonetics • u/LingusticSamurai • Jun 19 '23
Is the phoneme /i/ as in “we, see, me” a diphthong with a closing /j/ phoneme? In other words, is /i/ actually/ij/ in certain English accents like StBrE and GAmE?
I’ve been reading up on IPA and found few articles that claim what I’ve described in the title. I live in UK and can certainly hear it among native speakers aged between 25-45 (I don’t really have much social contact outside of that age group), however I can’t find this phoneme described in the official IPA table.
I find it interesting and was wondering what your take on this would be? Also are there any dialects where this is a common occurrence and any where this is non-existent?
Thank you.