A tripthong is produced in a word when three vowels appear in a row and are pronounced in the same stroke of voice. This means that by being part of the same unified sound, they make up the same syllable.
How they are formed and some examples
Triphthongs are made up of a weak vowel (i or u) plus a strong vowel (which can be a, e or o) plus another weak vowel. This combination of vowels can have different combinations. Thus, the most frequent triphthongs in Spanish are the following: iai (for example, riáis), iei (acariciéis), uai (for example, actáis), uei (for example, insinuéis) and ioi (for example, bioengineering).
It should be noted that not all combinations of three vowels are a tripthong, since if any of the weak vowels is tonic, there is no tripthong, as with the words you would live or you would eat, since in both the three vowels do not form the same syllable.
Accentuation of triphthongs and some examples
The stress rules for triphthongs are logically based on conventional stress rules.
In the word study there are three syllables (es-tu-diáis) and the stressed syllable is the last one, so it is an acute word that must incorporate an accent. In the word fiais a tripthong appears again and it is a word with a single syllable (monosyllable) and, consequently, it is not stressed.
Other cases of concurrency of vowels
The triphthongs represent a modality of vowel concurrency, but it is not the only case. Thus, hiatuses and diphthongs also refer to the combination of vowels.
A hiatus occurs in three different circumstances
:
1) when two strong vowels come together (for example the words mahogany, teacher or poet),
2) when a strong vowel and a weak vowel with accent (for example the words duo, barbería or country) and
3) when in the same word a strong vowel is repeated consecutively (for example, Aaron or vehemence and in this last word the interleaved h does not represent any sound and does not affect its pronunciation).
With respect to the diphthong, it occurs when the union of two weak vowels in the same word (for example, city or care) occurs. Another case of diphthong is one in which there is a concurrence between a strong vowel and a weak vowel or vice versa and as long as the weak vowel does not carry an accent (for example, price, louse or guagua).
Photos: Fotolia - Gstudio / fiore26
