verb
- past tense and past participle of diphthongise; to change a vowel sound into a diphthong or to pronounce as a diphthong
Usage: chiefly British spelling (American English uses 'diphthongized'); linguistics and phonetics term
Examples
- The linguist noted that the vowel had diphthongised over several centuries.
- In Middle English, many short vowels diphthongised before certain consonants.
- The pronunciation diphthongised gradually as the dialect evolved.
- Speakers of the older generation had not diphthongised the vowel in that word.
- The sound diphthongised differently across various regions of the country.