Diaphoneme
//ˈdaɪəˌfoʊnim// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An abstract phonological unit that represents collectively the dialectal variants of a phoneme.
"The transcription /oː‖əʊ‖oʊ/ or {oː} represents the diaphoneme descended from the ancestral Old English phoneme /oː/, which is preserved in Irish English as [oː] but has become [əʊ] in Received Pronunciation and as [oʊ] in General American."
Example
More examples"The transcription /oː‖əʊ‖oʊ/ or {oː} represents the diaphoneme descended from the ancestral Old English phoneme /oː/, which is preserved in Irish English as [oː] but has become [əʊ] in Received Pronunciation and as [oʊ] in General American."
Etymology
From dia- + phoneme.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.