Dipthongs

[Znoober]

What's a dipthong?

[IndieSinger]

Can't answer for "dipthongs" (someone else will have to), but I have studied diphthongs, which could be similar or even the same thing? It's a linguistic term, which isn't easy to explain. Basically, vowel sounds can be pure, that is, just one sound within the syllable and reflected as such in the International Phonetic Alphabet. These are also called monophthongs. Like the /i:/ vowel sound in "heat". Diphthongs are a "glide" of vowel sounds, where one vowel sound gradually merges into another (from another position on the IPA vowel chart) within the same syllable. An example is the /au/ sound in "house" and the /ei/ sound in "same".

[hertz]

i have always understood that the "ae"letters as in "encyclopaedia" is a diphthong, and is usually printed with the "ae" squashed together as one letter

[bernardo]

You're both correct - the main meaning is a gliding vowel sound (as in "high", "say", "boy", "low", "how"), but a second meaning is the "ae" stuck together. It can be called a diphthong, although the normal name for a conjoined "ae" or "oe" is a ligature. A third meaning is the use of two vowel letters to represent a single sound, as in "heat", "ought" etc. There can also be triphthongs like "beau".

[jenstar]

A very small bikini.