Dear All
From the "Shorter OED", 1983 ed:
<A union of two vowels prounounced in one syullabale; the combination
of a sonantal with a consonantal vowel. b. Often applied to a
combination of two vowel characters prop. termed DIGRAPH, and applied
to the ligatures ae and oe (read pushed together) of the Roman
Alphabet 1587.>
So it is for vowels alone, but the word "consonantal" might have
confused people.
Chris
Always understood diphthong to be vowels only. There are the ones where the
second 'e' is 'glued' to the vowel and I suspect that this comes from the
German habit of replacing a umlaut accent with an 'e'. Americans simply
avoid them (as in foetus, fetus). But any double vowel is a diphthong,
isn't it? It's possible that your schools were simply wrong (I have
students who were taught in Primary School that 'a lot' is one word -
sometimes such things develop a life of their own).
Diphthongs were originally pronounced differently - you could hear both
vowels as in the modern Northumbrian pronunciation of boat as bo-at. 'Th'
is modern - Old English had actual letters for soft 'th' (thorn) and hard
'th' (the).
AndrewF
--
<|_:-)_|>
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, England.
+44 (0)7092 251126
mailto:imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
... a nascent photo library.
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|