Dictionary

diphthongy en · ADJ

Etymology

From diphthong + -y.

Meanings

1. (informal) Having the quality of a diphthong.
   • This ghost is the only other person besides Neyeurme who can say it correctly because it has all these diphthongy tongue-strangling nuances to it. 1971, James Leo Herlihy, Season of the Witch, RosettaBooks, →ISBN:
   • I thought it was a sort of weird diphthongy vowel, almost like the French "dure" (hard) crossed with "do-er" -- very distinctive in a hard-to-pin-down way. 2007 March 4, SMC, “Just heard”, in rec.arts.mystery (Usenet):
   • You could see Oliver brightening up at the sight of that æ. He – keen on diphthongy things – really liked words with ligatures. Julius Cæsar! 2006, Peter Rushforth, A Dead Language, London: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:
   • American vowels tend to be very impure and diphthongy; you do NOT want this sound in your Italian or Latin. 1990 January 9, Roger Lustig, “Second rate composers (was Re: Tchiakovsky)”, in rec.music.classical (Usenet):

Forms

Synonyms

diphthongic · diphthongal