Re: [tied] Palatals, labials and velars in Swedish

Andrew: 

> I believe I once saw the Swedish "long u" sound transcribed

as /yw/, while its "long y" was transcribed as /yj/. Are such
transcriptions accurate, or are they simplifications/just plain
wrong?

Lars:
It is true that all long vowels in Swedish are diphthongs.

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Enlightening.

 

Lars:

But the end part (w j) is more a consonant than a vowel. Therefore many
Swedes live with the illusion that their language is monophthongic.

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Thank you for this information, but what I actually meant to ask you was whether Swedish "long u" really had /y/ as its first element, followed by /w/.  This would be in conflict with other descriptions I have heard of this sound as a high central rounded monophthong (as opposed to the frontness of the /y/ element of /yw/).  And it would mean that the only distinction between "long u" and "long y" would be in the consonantal off-glide.  But I am quite surprised to hear that all Swedish long vowels are diphthongs.  I thought English was the ugly duckling in this regard.  Is even "long e" pronounced as a diphthong, and if so, how is it different from the diphthong "long ä" might be?  And is "long a" a diphthong?  If so, what combination of sounds is it?