Word of the Day: Diphthong

A diphthong, for students of language, is of course a harnessing-together of two pure vowels to form a gliding vowel sound. Examples like /aɪ̯/ as in eye, a combination of "a-" and "-i", are common; also /aʊ/ as in cow, a combination of "a-" and "-oo". The word, as in many words which contain the sounds 'ph' (phi) and 'th' (theta), is Greek in origin. It is easy to remember its meaning by association, diphthongos means "two-toned" in Greek – a state that a person quickly assumes if going for a dip in a thong.

One of the things which most riles me, though, is the pronunciation that people give to two words in particular. One has a diphthong whose order is commonly reversed, the other has a simple vowel converted egregiously to a diphthong. These words are suicide and dissect.

Suicide is commonly pronounced "swee-cide" by all kinds of people; to them I suppose it rhymes with 'seaside'. But a careful inspection shows the "u" sound comes before the "i" sound. It should be "soo-i-cide". The same people say 'intuition' correctly, but pronounce 'tuition' as "tyoo-shen". It pains the ears, and is terribly inconsistent.

Dissect is often pronounced "dai-sect", especially by medical students, who should know better. But the word is clearly constructed 'dis-' + '-sect' – i.e., to separate into parts. The correct equivalent of "dai-sect" would be bisect – to divide into two. In this case, the simple vowel /ɪ/ has become diphthongized to /aɪ/. This too is pain and suffering.

Then again, I have often observed why I like the name Abraham as it is pronounced in English. It is one of those rare instances in which the same symbol (the 'a') is used for three different sounds in ONE word. Hebrew is more consistent, with Avra'am, each 'a' being the sound /a/. Much better!