ah/ awe

[Tom Zurinskas]

I've no problem hearing "ou" and "oi" as diphthongs.  But long a and long i
as in "gate" and "might" as I hear them in m-w.com are one-phthong, not two.
  This is obvious.  Anyone saying they are two must be listening to some
other dialect.

Tom Z


>From: RonButters at AOL.COM
>>Larry, don't you have the wrong examples? Since <lot>, <sot> and <mott>
>>are=20
>spelled (which I guess Mr. Z would have to pronounce as two syllables, by
>th=
>e=20
>way, according to "the spelling principal") with <o>, he'd have to
>pronounce=
>d=20
>them with the rounded vowel right? Like <fog> and <god> and <dog>?
>The monophthongal or weakened-offglide vowel nucleus in <hide> and <down>
>in=
>=20
>the South has an onset that varies between the vowel of <pan> and a
>slightly=
>=20
>less open vowel (about the same to my ears as the vowel in Boston r-less
><ca=
>r>
>).
>
>Anyway, as anyone who has every listened closely knows, the sounds in=20
>Standard English <pine>, <pound>, and <spoil> are all dipthongs. For that
>ma=
>tter, the=20
>sound in American English <gate> is a diphthong. Mr. Z is confused, I
>think,=
>=20
>because the vowel chart in his dictionary uses single symbols for these=20
>complex sounds. He doesn't understand the difference between letters and
>sou=
>nds.

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