A spurious diphthong (or false diphthong) is an

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

that is etymologically a

long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not d ...

but written exactly like a true

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, 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 ...

(''ei, ou'').

Origin

A spurious diphthong has two origins: from

compensatory lengthening Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...

of short (''e, o'') after deletion of a consonant or contraction of two vowels: #* *''mónt-ya'' or *''móntʰ-ya'' → *''mónsa'' (

assibilation In linguistics, assibilation is a sound change resulting in a sibilant consonant. It is a form of spirantization and is commonly the final phase of palatalization. Arabic A characteristic of Mashreqi varieties of Arabic (particularly Levanti ...

from palatalization) → "

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

" #* ''doter-ya'' → "giver" (feminine; compare masculine ) # #* → "you (pl.) love" #* → "mind" In general, spurious contracts from . The specific rules are more complex.

True diphthongs

By contrast, true diphthongs are ''e'' or ''o'' placed before ''i'' or ''u''. Some come from ''e''-grade of

ablaut In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut ( , from German ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its relate ...

+ ''i'', or ''o''-grade + ''u'', co-existing beside forms with the other grade: * "I leave" (''e''-grade: genuine diphthong) — "I have left" (''o''-grade) * *''eleútʰ-somai'' → "I will come" (''e''-grade) —

Homeric Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his authorship, Homer is ...

"I have come" (''o''-grade) * Proto-Greek *''akouyō'' → "I hear"

Pronunciation

Early in the

history of Greek Greek language, Greek is an Indo-European language, the sole surviving descendant of the Hellenic languages, Hellenic sub-family. Although it split off from other Indo-European languages around the 3rd millennium BCE (or possibly before), it is f ...

, the diphthong versions of ει and ου were pronounced as , the long vowel versions as . By the Classical period, the diphthong and long vowel had merged in pronunciation and were both pronounced as long

monophthong A monophthong ( ) is a pure vowel sound, or one whose articulation at beginning and end is relatively fixed, with the tongue moving neither up nor down and neither forward nor backward towards a new position of articulation. A monophthong can be ...

s . By the time of

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

, ει and ου had shifted to . (The shift of a Greek vowel to is called

iotacism Iotacism (, ''iotakismos'') or itacism is the process of vowel shift by which a number of vowels and diphthongs converged towards the pronunciation in post-classical Greek and Modern Greek. The term "iotacism" refers to the letter iota, the orig ...

.) In

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

, distinctive vowel length has been lost, and all vowels are pronounced short: .

Other dialects

Long ''e'' and ''o'' existed in two forms in

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

- Ionic: and (''ē, ō''). In earlier Severer Doric, by contrast, only counted as a long vowel, and it was the vowel of contraction. In later forms of Doric, it contracted to . Throughout the history of Doric, compensatory lengthening resulted in . "Severe" refers to the sterner-sounding

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

pronunciation of , in contrast to the closer .

References

{{Ancient Greek grammar Greek grammar Ancient Greek Vowels