diphthong

• dipthong (obsolete)

From French diphtongue, from Late Latin diphthongus, from Ancient Greek δίφθογγος (díphthongos, “two sounds”), from δίς (dís, “twice”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/, /ˈdɪpˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪpˌθɔŋ/, /ˈdɪfˌθɔŋ/; (cot–caught merger) /ˈdɪpˌθɑŋ/, /ˈdɪfˌθɑŋ/^[1]

• Audio (US); /ˈdɪpˌθɔŋ/:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada); /ˈdɪfˌθɔŋ/:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪfθɔŋ, -ɪpθɔŋ, -ɪfθɑŋ, -ɪpθɑŋ

• Notes: Pronunciations with /p/ are more common in American English than elsewhere.

diphthong (plural diphthongs)

1. (phonology) A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable.

   Synonym: gliding vowel

   Coordinate terms: monophthong, triphthong, hiatus, synizesis

   • 2021 October 5, Gessica Puccini, “Lang Belta: the Belter language from SYFY/Amazon’s The Expanse”, in Lingoblog‎^[1]:

     In Lang Belta vowels usually appear preceding or following a consonant (see previous examples), and as of now no occurrence of diphthongs or triphthongs has been attested.

2. (phonology) A diaphoneme realized as a two-target vowel in some but not necessarily all dialects.
3. (rare) A vowel digraph or ligature.
   • 1854, Robert Bigsby, Historical and Topographical Description of Repton, in the County of Derby‎^[2], Woodfall and Kinder, page 47:

     And he might have written the name, also, with the diphthong æ, as well as the single vowel, in the initial syllable, throughout all the preceding forms.

   • 1860, Joseph E. Worcester, An Elementary Dictionary of the English Language‎^[3], Swan, Brewer, and Tileston, page 12:

     An improper diphthong has only one of the vowels sounded; as, ea in heat, oa in coal.

   • 1874, Theophilus Dwight Hall, A Child’s First Latin Book‎^[4], John Murray, page 3:

     The diphthong ae is sounded like ē (§7); that is, it has the sound of ey in they.

• diphthong on Wikipedia.Wikipedia