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The ir diphthong. I've seen some sources that leave this out altogether. It's always followed by an R consonant, and these sources don't see the schwa as as really having its own sound, as in the ih-uh diphthong. And I say, I admit, I agree with that. I'm putting in here though, because a lot of other sources use it as a separate diphthong: ih to uh -- schwa. Now, the first sound, ih. With many diphthongs, I find that the ih vowel, it's written as an open ih as in sit, acutally in the practice of the diphthong takes on a different color. I find it to be a lot closer to the ee as in she, though the tongue is not so far forward.
I would think of the first sound of this diphthong more as a relxed ee than as a pure ih as in sit. The second sound then is the schwa, and that sound is very quick as you are already moving into the R of the consonant that follows. So in slow motion, the sound, with the R, as it is always followed by the R, would be: iiiiihhhhhh uuuuuhhhhhh rrrrrrr: here. Sample words: sheer, steer, near. Sample sentence: I fear my career is near its end.
International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: [![]()
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This diphthong is a combination of the 'ih' as in 'sit' and the 'uh' as in 'supply' vowel sounds.