Re: Latin vowel inventory

Quoting Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>:

>     The less common diphthongs oe and eu are best pronounced as they are
> written (o+e, e+u). In 'cui', 'hui' the ui is to be pronounced as a
> dipthong, somewhat as in 'ruinous'; but 'qui:' is [kwi:].
I have three syllables in "ruinous", and like to think that I in this mimic
most nativers I've heard. And I've heard Americans complain about Tolkien
describing the Quendian diphthong /ui/ as like the _ui_ in "ruin", despite the
later not being a diphthong.

So, is there some (obsolete?) variety of English English that have a
monosyllabic pronunciation of "ruin", or have I, due to people like the
abovementioned Americans, acquired an unusual pronunciation here?

                                                      Andreas

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