MONOPHTHONG

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MONOPHTHONG. In PHONETICS, a VOWEL whose quality is relatively constant, in contrast to a DIPHTHONG or triphthong. Some varieties of English have more monophthongs, some have fewer: in RP there are 12 (as in see, sit, set, hat, arm, got, saw, pull, pool, cup, fur, and the first syllable of ago); in ScoE there are 11, rather differently distributed (as in say, see, sit, set, hat/arm, got/saw, so, pull/pool, cup/fur, and the first syllables of never, ago).

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