[pmmail-list] dipthong

[Bill]

On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 10:36:22 -0600, Dave wrote:

>On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 11:04:32 -0500, Kari Suomela wrote:
>
>>What is a "dipthong"?
>>
>Joking aside, it is a pair of letters that operate as one.  "Th" is a 
>common one; you used to see it printed with the t and the h as one 
>letter.  The "oe" in "Oedipus" is another.  Usually you need a fancy 
>font to show a dipthong.


Actually, make that a "diphthong".  And the letters need not be printed
together; the "oy" in "toy" is a diphthong too.

Here's the full definition:

Diphthong (noun):  An unsegmentable, gliding speech sound varying
continuously in phonetic quality but held to be a single sound or
phoneme and identified by its apparent beginning and ending sound, as
the "oi"-sound of "toy" or "boil", or the "ch"-sound of "chip". 
[Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language - 1989
edition]

- Bill G.
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