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USAGE: di"f"thong (was: Tetraphthongs, Triphthongs, Dipht..)

From:John Vertical <johnvertical@...>
Date:Sunday, May 28, 2006, 17:00
>I apologize if you've addressed this before, and I certainly don't >mean to be rude, but why do you consistently spell "diphthong" as >"difthong"? I find it quite distracting, not to mention aphonetic >since I pronounce "diphthong" with a /p/ instead of an /f/ (a >prescriptively sanctioned pronunciation, in case you're wondering :)). > >I can't find any support for "difthong" as an alternate spelling in >English. If you're trying to institute a reform, of course, more >power to you, but if there's a specific reason I'd love to hear it. :) >-- >Mark J. Reed
Yes, it is something of a reform. I've seen multiple spelling reform pages suggest that spelling /f/ as <f> would be a good place to start little by little, and I agree to some extent. (You may have also noticed me using spellings such as "laff" or "enuff", which I hope everyone can agree to be improvements.) As far as <ph> goes, I don't find it all that bad for a variety of reasons, but I still sometimes end up simplifying; most commonly medially or in clusters. "Diphthong" fits both of these. IMO [fT] also sounds definitely better than [pT]. John Vertical

Replies

Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Shreyas Sampat <ssampat@...>