1495: Diphthongs Vs. Spelling Jan 15, 2016

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When two vowels combine together in one syllable, it's a diphthong, but orthography doesn't always represent this. For instance, while writing one vowel to correspond with one sound should be easy enough, in words like the English 'I', what is actually two sounds [ai] is represented with one (note that 'eye' accomplishes this). In German, where spelling tends to be more standard, that same sound is represented by writing <ei>, and so that is maintained, but the sound [i]—as in 'key'—in German is usually written with two letters [ie], even though this is not a diphthong. Ultimately, in any language with a written history, tradition will supersede reason at times.
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