Monophthongises

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Reduces a glide between two vowel sounds into one steady pure vowel quality in speech
2. Turns a complex vowel that shifts within one syllable into a single unchanging sound
3. Changes a diphthong so that it is pronounced as one simple vowel rather than two blended ones

Etymology: "Monophthongises" is the third-person singular form of "monophthongise", a verb meaning to turn a diphthong (a vowel that glides from one quality to another within a single syllable) into a single, steady vowel. The verb is built from "monophthong", which joins Greek "mono-", meaning "single", with "phthongos", meaning "sound" or "voice", and the suffix "-ise", which turns a noun into a verb meaning to make or become something. So the word literally means "to make into a single sound", and it is a plain, transparent formation rather than a term with a dramatic backstory. The grammar of the form is simple: when the subject is "he", "she", or "it", the verb takes the "-es" ending, as in "the accent monophthongises the vowel in many words." Linguists use the verb when describing how one vowel sound in a language has collapsed into another, a process that happens over generations and is recorded in the sound histories of many languages.

Synonyms: monophthongizes, monophthongize

Antonyms: diphthongise, diphthongize