Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A compound vowel sound resulting from the succession of three simple ones and functioning as a unit.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A combination of three vowels in a single syllable forming a simple or compound sound; a group of three vowel characters representing combinedly a single or monosyllabic sound, as eau in beau, ieu in adieu, eye, etc.; a vowel trigraph.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Orthoëpy) A combination of three vowel sounds in a single syllable, forming a simple or compound sound; also, a union of three vowel characters, representing together a single sound; a trigraph.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
monosyllabic vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another that passes over a third one.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A triphthong is a sequence of three vowels making up one syllable.
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A triphthong is the union of _three_ vowels pronounced in like manner; as, _eau_ in beau, _iew_ in view.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
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The union of three vowels in one sound is called a triphthong; as iew in view.
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However, for purposes of graphic accenting, any sequence made up of an open vowel between two closed atonic vowels will always be considered as a triphthong, regardless of its actual articulation in one or two syllables.
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A sequence of atonic closed vowel + open vowel + atonic closed vowel can be pronounced, in certain cases, as one syllable, a triphthong, and in others as two distinct syllables, with a hiatus followed by a diphthong, or vice versa.
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For a triphthong to exist, two closed atonic vowels (“i” or “u”) and, between them, an open vowel (“a”, “e”, or “o”): anunciáis, guau, miau, confiéis.
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A triphthong is IMPROPER or is called a TRIGRAPH if one or two of the three vowels is silent; as in ad_ieu_, b_eau_ty.
Orthography As Outlined in the State Course of Study for Illinois Elmer W. Cavins
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A triphthong is PROPER if all three of the vowels are sounded.
Orthography As Outlined in the State Course of Study for Illinois Elmer W. Cavins
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Only the first two of these four words contain a triphthong.
Frederic Mistral Downer, Charles A 1901
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Within a word two or three contiguous vowels usually combine to form a diphthong or a triphthong respectively
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