Diphthongised

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Pronounced as a diphthong, a vowel sound that glides from one quality to another within a single syllable
2. Having a vowel sound that shifts smoothly across two positions, as in the vowel of the word price
3. Articulated as a gliding vowel that moves from one tongue position to another inside a single syllable

Etymology: "Diphthongised" is the past tense and past participle of "diphthongise," the British spelling of "diphthongize," meaning to change a simple vowel sound into a diphthong, a sound that glides from one vowel quality to another within a single syllable, as in the vowel of "boy" or "house." The verb is built on "diphthong," which came into English through Latin "diphthongus" from Greek "diphthongos," a compound of "di-" meaning "two" and "phthongos," meaning "sound" or "voice." The Greek word thus names a sound made of two sounds fused together. The verb itself is a straightforward formation: the noun "diphthong" was turned into a verb with the suffix "-ise" (or "-ize"), so that "to diphthongise" means to make a vowel into a diphthong. Its past forms, "diphthongised," simply follow the regular pattern of English verbs.