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while we wait for the linguist's definitive answer,
monophthongal = having a single vowel sound (as opposed to dipthongs and the like?) [ILIU]
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monophthongal = having a single vowel sound (as opposed to dipthongs and the like?) [ILIU] Yes. The vowels in fleece, kit, dress, bath, strut, foot, goose, palm, lot, and thought are monophthongs in most dialects. This is between around 8 and 10 vowels depending on the dialect. The vowels in face, goat, boy, out, high are diphthongs in most dialects.
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old hand
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old hand
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Is the w in cow (or vowel) considered to be a consonant? It seems to act the same as the w in cwm and crwth.
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The "ow" in "cow" is a digraph: two letters used to represent one sound. Which sound it represents depends on the word: compare "cow" and "mow". Other digraphs are th, sh, ch.
Last edited by goofy; 06/29/11 12:05 AM.
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The "ow" in "cow" is a digraph: two letters used to represent one sound. Oh, thank you for saying that! I was struggling and struggling to try and discern any sound for w in that word. I was thinking the other day about the w in why, and realized that for me at least it's a diphthong: kind of an ooo-wuh, the whole being sort of like ooo-wuh-eye. Hmm--correction--more like ooo-wuh-eye-ee. Not quite Hawaii! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is the w in cow (or vowel) considered to be a consonant?
Well, that's sort of a trick question. Cow in my dialect (General American English) is /'kaʊ/. That's a consonant followed by a diphthong. The /a/ does not occur in my dialect as a monophthongal vowel sound, but is pronounced like the vowel in bath or palmm in Australian English; the /ʊ/ occurs and is pronounced like the vowel in foot or put. /w/ is sometimes called a semi-vowel.
[Edited for grammar and correctness.]
Last edited by zmjezhd; 06/29/11 11:45 AM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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/ʊ/ is sometimes called a semi-vowel. I think you mean /w/.
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I was thinking the other day about the w in why, and realized that for me at least it's a diphthong: kind of an ooo-wuh, the whole being sort of like ooo-wuh-eye. Hmm--correction--more like ooo-wuh-eye-ee. Not quite Hawaii! The first sound in "why" is the semi-vowel /w/. /w/ is pretty much the same as /u/ (the vowel in "boot") - the difference is that /w/ is the onset of the syllable while /u/ is the nucleus. If that helps.
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ILIU too and didn't see 10 examples listed (WIKIPEDIA). Do you think that our speech patterns are so standardized and monotonously the same that people hear and recognize those distinctions in everyday speech? Regular, real people, not linguists or someone making a study?
I tried saying the example words for both diphthongs and monophthongs out loud to see if I could hear two vowel sounds or just one. I am not sure that experiment was very successful. From living so many places during my childhood I have some very regional pronunciations of some words that I have retained as an adult.
~===,===,=^=<
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Pooh-Bah
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wow>>>> interesting topic.
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