What is a Diphthong?
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What is a diphthong? It’s two vowel sounds in a single syllable.
Diphthongs are a natural part of our spoken language. They go way back.
Three thousand years ago in Linear B, this symbol - the third A sound that was identified
- was pronounced aaaaiiii. In modern English, diphthongs are everywhere.
Eight - eeeiiight - has two vowel sounds in a single syllable.
Eye, which is a one syllable word, is nothing but a diphthong. Iiiieee.
OW! is also a single-syllable diphthong and Ow, diphthong is hard to spell.
> Understanding the origin of diphthong can help with its spelling.
We pronounce it “dipthong” but we spell it p-h, fff.
This comes from the original Greek. δις (thees), which means ‘two times’ like
“di” in carbon dioxide where there are two times the oxygen atoms compared to the
carbon, and φθόγγος (fthongos), which means ‘sound’.
In φθόγγος (fthongos), the φ (phi) comes before the θ (theta), so when we spell
diphthong in modern English, the φ (phi) is from the residual Greek.
