the long u (ū), is probably better transcribed as /jʊ:/. (So. it would be a diphthong.) Nah, it just has two syllables! wink

I am tutoring a boy, approx. 11 years old, who is from Liberia (where English is the official language). He has been in the States four years, he says. I have been interested to note that he offen will say a word that ends in -ed as two syllables even when it is normally pronounced here in one. As in, They look-ed across the street.