triphthong

From the Ancient Greek τρίφθογγος (tríphthongos, “triphthong, having three voices”), from τρία (tría, “three”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/; (proscribed) /ˈtɹɪpˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪfˌθɔŋ/; (proscribed) /ˈtɹɪpˌθɔŋ/
• (Canada, US, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪfˌθɑŋ/; (proscribed) /ˈtɹɪpˌθɑŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪfθɑŋ, (US) -ɪfθɔŋ

triphthong (plural triphthongs)

1. A monosyllabic vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another that passes over a third one.
2. A disyllabic sequence of a vowel, a semivowel, and a vowel.
   • 2017, Ahmad Al-Jallad, Was it sūrat al-baqárah? Evidence for antepenultimate stress in the Quranic Consonantal Text and its Relevance for صلوه Type Nouns‎:

     Before moving on to a solution, it may be worth emphasizing that nouns of the صلوه type originally contained a triphthong. […] In addition to evidence from the Safaitic inscriptions, the discovery of the Graeco-Arabic inscription A1 (Al-Jallad and al-Manaser 2015), where the verb ’tw ‘he came’ is written αθαοα /’atawa/, confirms this to be the case for Old Arabic as well.

• monophthong
• diphthong
• tetraphthong
• pentaphthong

• triphthongal