UNIT 2-Diphthong and Silent Letter
DIPHTHONG For spellings consisting of two vowel letters, which especially in English are often not pronounced as two different vowel sounds, see digraph (orthography) A diphthong ( / ˈ d ɪ f θ ɒ ŋ / DIF-thong or / ˈ d ɪ p θ ɒ ŋ / DIP-thong ; [1] from Greek : δίφθογγος , diphthongos , literally "two sounds" or "two tones"), also known as a gliding vowel , is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable . Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus ) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. Silent Letter What is a silent letter? A silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word’s pronunciation. One of the noted difficulties of English spelling is a high number of s...