days of the week

[trustM]

Are the days of the week promounced with an short /i/ at the end or with
/deI/? Are both ways correct and possible? If not, which one is correct?
Thanx!

[Casiopea]

The final sound in "day" is called a diphthong. A diphthong (pronounced dif'thong, not dip'thong) is made up of two sounds: one sound is always a vowel, and the other sound is always a glide, either [j] ("y") or [w].

If the glide comes first, the diphthong is called an onglide (start on a glide), and if the glide comes last, the diphthong is called an offglide (end off with a glide), like this,

Onglide: [ja] ("ya")
Offglide: [aj] ("eye")

As for the word "day", the letters "ay" are pronounced [ej], as on offglide, and it's currently written as [eI].

All the best,

[trustM]

ok. In my dictionary it says that Monday is pronounced /mʌndi/;
why not /mʌndei/?? Would that be a wrong pronunciation? BTW, I know what a diphthong is, I teach English as a foreign language, and when I went to school they taught us /mʌndei/, but our university teachers said different, and Longman's dictionary says different. So, I'm curious if both are possible and correct.
Thanx

[ElectricDemon]

Maybe it's the dialect? I've heard about 3 versions from native speakers.

[Casiopea]

Mon[deI] is the standard, the long form, and Mon[di] is one of its variants, or its short form. The difference between the two is not a matter of dialect variation. (I use both.) The difference has to do with ease of speech, and a processes called Reduction.

The offglide [eI], also written [ej], has two parts: a vowel [e] and a glide [j]. The vowel [e] is omitted, leaving the glide [j], like this,

Mond|ej| => Mond|j| => Mond[i]

Note, the symbols [I] and [j] represent the same sound, a palatal glide. When that glide functions as a vowel, it's written [i]. That's the sound we hear in reduced Mond[i].

All the best,

[ElectricDemon]

Thank you for clearing it up for me too. I've just realised I use both variants (never noticed until I read this topic)

[trustM]

Thank ya all

[Casiopea]

Welcome.

[ElectricDemon]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

If the glide comes first, the diphthong is called an onglide (start on a glide), and if the glide comes last, the diphthong is called an offglide (end off with a glide), like this,

Onglide: [ja] ("ya")
Offglide: [aj] ("eye")

As for the word "day", the letters "ay" are pronounced [ej], as on offglide, and it's currently written as [eI].

Can I have a question too? What if someone pronounces ... say 'today' [to-die]. I think I do it most of the time .

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by ElectricDemon

Can I have a question too? What if someone pronounces ... say 'today' [to-die]. I think do it most of the time .

Actually, it'd be written, [tu'dai] ([ai] as in the sounds represented by the underlined portion in "pie".)

It's a dialect variant, that's all. Keep on using it.