diphthongs

Noun

diphthong (plural diphthongs)

1. A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable.
   • In Lang Belta vowels usually appear preceding or following a consonant (see previous examples), and as of now no occurrence of diphthongs or triphthongs has been attested.2021 October 5, Gessica Puccini, “Lang Belta: the Belter language from SYFY/Amazon’s The Expanse”, in Lingoblog

   Synonyms:

   gliding vowel

2. A diaphoneme realized as a two-target vowel in some but not necessarily all dialects.
3. (rare) A vowel digraph or ligature.
   • And he might have written the name, also, with the diphthong æ, as well as the single vowel, in the initial syllable, throughout all the preceding forms.1854, Robert Bigsby, Historical and Topographical Description of Repton, in the County of Derby, Woodfall and Kinder, page 47