Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Belonging to a diphthong; consisting of two vowel-sounds pronounced in one syllable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Relating or belonging to a diphthong; having the nature of a diphthong.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to a diphthong.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Darya Kavitskaya in Compensatory Lengthening: Phonetics, Phonology, Diachrony (2002) relates her own story about perceptual metathesis on page 48 in footnote 8: "Indeed, in teaching Russian to American students, I noticed many instances of palatalization of the consonant being heard as some kind of diphthongal property of the preceding vowel, for example, [banʲa] 'bath' was misheard and pronounced as [baʲnʲa] or even [bajna]." (link here).

    Hey, what do ya know?... 2008

  • Darya Kavitskaya in Compensatory Lengthening: Phonetics, Phonology, Diachrony (2002) relates her own story about perceptual metathesis on page 48 in footnote 8: "Indeed, in teaching Russian to American students, I noticed many instances of palatalization of the consonant being heard as some kind of diphthongal property of the preceding vowel, for example, [banʲa] 'bath' was misheard and pronounced as [baʲnʲa] or even [bajna]." (link here).

    Archive 2008-03-01 2008

  • The distinctions might not be easy to find, but these 'higher order' signs are generally assumed to be either different diphthongal versions, or those with an aspirated consonant.

    New info on 'lily' 2010

  • “New York tawk features a diphthongal aw sound,” Elster observes, “that in heavy New Yorkese sounds almost disyllabic.”

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

  • “New York tawk features a diphthongal aw sound,” Elster observes, “that in heavy New Yorkese sounds almost disyllabic.”

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

  • In the speech of many, perhaps of most, Americans there is scarcely any trace of diphthongal quality in the sound.

    Chapter 7. The Standard American Pronunciation. 2. The Vowels Henry Louis 1921

  • ” 29 But in British speech a greater variety of diphthongal shadings occur, “some of them familiar in the exaggerated representations of Englishmen and their speech on the American stage.

    Chapter 7. The Standard American Pronunciation. 2. The Vowels Henry Louis 1921

  • During the greater part of this period, also, the diphthongal vowels ae are written separate.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913

  • This aw for i, which I have made Drinkwater use, is the latest stage of the old diphthongal oi, which Mr. Chevalier still uses.

    Captain Brassbound's Conversion George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • Latin and was much more conservative of diphthongal sounds; it also used double consonants, which old Latin did not.

    The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius Charles Thomas Cruttwell 1879

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