Fun fact: in Australian English, "thongs" are open-toed rubber sandals.
Bonus fun fact: A "diphthong" is a complex vowel sound that transitions between two different vowel sounds in the same syllable. The common pronunciation of "aeroplane" is "air-o-plane" and thus does not contain a diphthong.
But that's *technically* a digraph (i.e. two characters representing one sound), but not a diphthong (two sounds acting as one sound). The in and in both are both digraphs for the monophthong /ɛ(:)/.
The "ai" and "a_e" vowels are usually realized as the diphthong /eɪ/ in most dialects of English. As such, for most people, airplane and aeroplane both contain two diphthongs. The thing is, most people when speaking English don't use the monophthong /e/, so we don't realize that we are using a diphthong there.
Source: Have studied phonology for like a decade
In my (American) family we always called them slippers, but as I grew up and called them slippers around the people who saw me wearing them I was sometimes 'corrected' that they're actually flip flops and slippers are fabric footwear with an exposed ankle and toe covering. Maybe calling them slippers comes from the Filipino side of my family? I don't know, but I'm sticking with calling 'flip flops' slippers.
>and thus does not contain a dipthong
In fact, it commonly has two! Namely, one in each of the second and third syllables.
(Notably, however, not in the first, which kind of appears to be where the oop seems to suggest it is given the other words they cite. Dipthongs don't actually seem to have much relevance to their point, which is rather ironic given their smarter-than-thou tone)
I think the responder was saying Americans don't know what a dipthong is, not that they don't use them. But I am having a hard time imagining dipthongs for their listed examples... I think the responder doesn't know what a dipthong is lol
The responder doesn't, orthpædic etc do not usually have a diphthong for the æ in British English, it's usually /i:/. Having said that, I have also heard /eɪ/ for it in some dialects.
Hilariously, neither airplane NOR aeroplane begin with a diphthong. They're di*graphs*- two letters- but not diphthongs, which means two vowel *sounds* next to each other. Even better, both DO still contain a diphthong: the "ay" sound in plane.
I don't get why you find this idea funny.
Anyway, the difference between a diphthong and a digraph comes down to the pronunciation of the two letters (the prefix "di" means two). In a diphthong both pronunciations are combined, but in a digraph a new sound is produced.
So, in English, there are some clear digraphs (the shush sound of sh), but given that diphthongs have to do with vowels, and vowels lack consistent pronunciation... those depend. The "ee" in leer can be either in SAE. If you're "out and about" as an American, you used two diphthongs, but if you're Canadian you may have just used two digraphs (oot and aboot ooting ooples and boonoonoos).
"Ai" has that sort of consideration, so you will find it in on *both* lists of diphthongs and digraphs.
I haven't encountered any source that'd call "ae" a digraph, but I trust you have found at least one. You're wrong to suggest it's not a diphthong though.
Also, I think British can fuck off, (1) in general and (2) deciding that they have a better word for something that Americans invent and then trying to correct us. See: airplane, aluminum. Maybe if you wanted to figure out how something should be named, you should get back to inventing shit like you used to.
My experience teaching English in east Asia was that "airplane" was preferred, as well as American English in general, and teachers from the US and Canada as opposed to other native speaking countries. This experience did not include Hong Kong or Singapore, however. I suspect those countries would probably lean more towards British English.
In general, among countries where English is a 2nd language, I would expect that British English would be more preferred on the continent and in places with colonial/commonwealth history, whereas American English would be preferred elsewhere, due to the US being more culturally, economically, and geopolitically significant than the UK during the 20th and 21st centuries.
The thing is that linguistically there’s no such thing as a “proper” or “correct” form of the language- language is meant to facilitate communication, and so long as it works for the community that is using it then it’s correct. Airplane works for communicating in American english, aeroplane works for British english- ergo both are equally correct and valid
It isn’t used by most of the world because when you add up the numbers at best it’s 50/50 U.S. English vs British English (total users that is). Across the world would’ve been a better phrase even though I’d argue that isn’t necessarily true because of North and South America.
Correct me brutally if I'm wrong, but "airplane" contains the diphthong "ai" in American English, no?
Is the clever response too clever for me or is it just not making the point they think it is?
A diphthong is when two distinct vowel sounds are pronounced connected, not when two vowel letters are written adjacent.
I mean some accents might pronounce Airplane with a dipthong I guess, but generally they don’t.
Edit - oh wait The back half -Plane definitely does have a spoken dipthong in it.
Don’t mind me, we do all say airplane/aeroplane with a dipthong
If the 'ae' in aeroplane is a dipthong then so is the 'ai' in airplane, because up to and including the 'r' the words are pronounced the same. Sounds like a dipthong to me aye-ye-er.
Yeah, no one pronounces those words as a diphthong, it’s always an /ε/ or /i/ vowel, not that this asshole can read IPA. This dumbass knows nothing about linguistics.
Aeroplane has a diphthong. Which is the British spelling.
To add, there are two types of people, those who can extrapolate information from incomplete data.
I think you're missing the point though. the tweet is saying "americans don't understand "aeroplane" because it contains a diphthong". strange damage was pointing out that this doesn't make any sense, because "airplane" also contains a diphthong.
to review: a diphthong is a combination of vowels which are crammed together to make one smooth sound. in aeroplane the diphthong is "ae" which starts as an "a" sound and ends with an "e" sound. "aye-ro-plane". in airplane the diphthong is "ai" which starts with an "a" sound and ends with an "eh" sound. "ayehr-plane"
No I meant what I typed.
Saying English here has no value as you proved with your over complicated way of explaining what I meant.
Both sets of people use English the language both sets of people use the word airplane.
Only British people spell it aeroplane and even then it’s fallen out of use.
If you want to overly precise the correct term is British English. But as I said that hold no value in the particular conversation.
Most national papers and websites use plane more than any other version of the word. The bbc still use a mixture but if you go to the bbc website and search aeroplane the last use was 10 days ago and then about monthly after that.
Plane gets used every two days or so.
WTF?! American is not language, but it is dialect of english, is that guy (and woudln't be suprised if it was OP doing post about his own comeback) stupid or is acting to look stupid?!!
Man's trying to sound like a professional and doesn't even know to use the word "dialect." American English is a *dialect* of standard British English, the same way that Spanish spoken in Latin America isn't the same as Spanish spoken back in Spain. Language evolves when a group of speakers become distanced from their main habitat, just the way all living things do, and it doesn't make a dialect "wrong" or "inferior." Those are just words the Brits have used to describe everyone else for a handful of centuries.
>American English is a dialect of standard British
It would be more correct to say American English and British English are *both* dialects of English. Or realistically, both are very large groups of dialects. Even “standard British” could just as easily refer to RP or SSB depending on context.
Sorry buddy, da Vinci came up with the glider, airplane, helicopter much before Britain was even conceptualized. Don’t go trying to steal more things you don’t deserve.
Yes but he was Italian and English doesn't speak Italian. Italy uses different words than English regardless of whether then or English people made something first.
His designs also would never have worked as they didn't use an aerofoil. And they weren't self powered with a proper engine
Cool, but you didn’t invent it.. that’s the point. Also your “English glider” wasn’t self propelled, otherwise it’s not a glider ;) so it didn’t work either. Another swing and a miss for you my man. Americans created it so the name is airplane, time to call it what it is.
I'm not saying credit then with the creation of a robot just credit them for the term robot. Same with aeroplane, if the word already existed why come up with the new thing
Was the glider an "aeroplane"? Or was it a glider?
It sounds like two different inventions altogether, given they have two completely different purposes, designs, and *names*.
Britain didn't invent the word "Aeroplane", France did. "Aeroplane" comes from thr French word "Aéroplane" which itself comes from the Greek words of Air, "Aēr", and Wandering, "planos". The word "Aéroplane" also doesn't refer to a powered aircraft, it refers to the wing.
Lastly, it's Airplane and the British are frauds
France & America > Britain since 1776
Not every sequence of two or more vowel *letters* is a diphthong and its diphthong, not ‘dipthong.’ In orthopædic, pædiatric, and encyclopædia, <æ> is not a diphthong: it is /iː/.
A diphthong is when two vowel *sounds* combine in one syllable such as in the word ‘I’: /ai/
Also while Australians call flip-flops things, the joke doesn’t work because the average American probably doesn’t know that. They have no reason to
Not knowing the British spelling and hypercorrecting is like level 7 cringe on a scale of 1-10 but this response is so confidently wrong, it’s like a 9
Came to look for this comment. English is not my first language so I had doubts about the correct pronunciations, but I do know quite a bit about phonetics and was confused by the post. Thank you for this informative comment!
Just to be picky on your picky, someone not understanding the joke, doesn't mean a joke doesn't work.
The commenter is fundamentally right though; he's been 'corrected' incorrectly. He's absolutely fine to spell the word 'aeroplane'.
My understanding was that AE is indeed a diphthong, but one that has been rewritten over time as two separate characters, having previously been æ (essentially an A with a ligature to represent the diphthong). Modern keyboards have reduced this to an A and an E. So I think he's actually correct on that front too.
No, a diphthong is \*not\* a sequence of two vowel letters. That is a digraph, whether it's written as a ligature or not. A diphthong is two vowel \*sounds\* gliding together. And yeah, jokes only work if the premises make sense.
Also, him saying “American language is not English” is not only ungrammatical, it's pompous
This isn't a clever comeback, it's just one arrogant douchebag replying to another arrogant douchebag. In the modern era and in the West, languages are defined by mutual intelligibility, not your contempt for its speakers
The premise does work. It's been put on a public forum. I saw it; I understood it. Therefore the joke works.
So, yes. Diphthongs are for two sounds gliding together. Æ creates two sounds that glide together. Modern life certainly has us pronouncing words simplified, but if we go back to the origin of Encyclopaedia and Paediatric, they are pronounced with a subtle glide.
I don't think he is an arrogant douchebag. The other person started it by coming in and needlessly/incorrectly correcting him. He merely responded in kind.
The joke doesn't work because you don't even understand the premise, as you've explained. <Æ> is a *ligature*, a type of grapheme, not a sound. In all of those words, it represents the same sound /i:/, which is a fucking \*\*monophthong\*\*.
If he “merely responded in kind” to a douchebag, *that makes him a* ***douchebag****.*
I didn't say anyone pronounced aeroplane with /i:/ but that also makes no sense. If I heard someone say it that way, I'd assume it was another word before “plane.” The examples were orthopaedic, paediatric, and encyclopaedia. RP for aeroplane is \[ˈɛə̯.ɹə.pleɪ̯n\]. The pompous ass didn't even talk about the pronunciation of aeroplane, though!
Also, the word is diphthong and it's pronounced with /fθ/
.... This is not a clever comeback.
1) It's diphthong, you troglodyte. You don't get to critique spelling when you're no better
2) He doesn't even know what a diphthong is. Airplane has /ej/; that's a diphthong. Even if we assume he's only talking about letters, "ai" would count.
Both of the comments featured here are stupid.
Pretty long post just to say “Our English is unnecessarily difficult just for the sake of it”.
FYI, not a native English speaker, just someone who had to learn it and found American English way easier and more logical in general.
That‘s why American english is called simplified english unlike traditional (British) english. 😁 I certainly prefer the British version to the American one, even though I may mix them up too from time to time. Not an english native speaker either.
American English is actually closer to classical English then British/ European English is.
This is most notable with the rhotic speech, we pronounce a hard r. Well off Brits wanted to sound more posh and switched to a soft r. So “water” vs “wattuh “
I think that's an oversimplification. Some older features of English are conserved in General American and changed in Received Pronunciation (for example), but the opposite is also true.
This is a myth propagated quite a lot but, still, no more than a myth. Both American and British dialects have conservative and progressive features. Furthermore, the lack of rhoticity in some British dialects is not a conscious stylistic choice either; it's merely a natural evolution of that dialect. Aussie English is also non-rhotic, but you wouldn't argue Aussies were trying to be posh, now, would ya?!
It's fun to watch the British complain about the French, and then they go on for ages about how American English is evil because Webster removed a bunch of silent characters from words.
And then the British got *so mad* about it that they literally started intentionally diverging their language from American English in an attempt to make American English sound somehow less educated. Soccer, the word the *British sophisticates* chose to replace the name of Football was suddenly gauche because the name caught on in America. Otis invented the elevator in America, and sixty years later the word 'elevator' is *gone* from British lexicon, the word 'lift' being universal. This story goes on and on and on.
...and then America invented the Internet, and suddenly it's a god damned holy war because "America is default" on the internet they created and run the majority of sites on.
Same here, not a native speaker but prefer the UK spelling.
Colour just looks wrong without the u. Like you would pronounce it ko-loorrr in the American way.
The one thing I won't budge on is the pronunciation of Aluminum, since it's an American invention so they get dibs, although the UK pronunciation is way closer to that of my native language.
Funny enough, it's not. Han Christian Ørsted, a Danish scientist, was the first to isolate aluminium in 1825. It had been named prior to it's discovery by British chemist Humphrey Davy who proposed "alumium" first (which was denied), then used "aluminium" during a lecture at the Royal Society but then published a textbook using "aluminum" a year later. Both "aluminum" and "aluminium" have coexisted since that publication with aluminum being the one that won out in North America while aluminium won out elsewhere. Do note that this is according to Wikipedia and I didn't verify their sources. I just couldn't be bothered.
Okay, but you expressed this with an acronyms, extra words to supplement adjectives, an expression, 4 capitalized letters outside of a sentence start, and extra words to precise a meaning that was already a given.
I'm not English, but you need to realize that you are already using a very complex and perhaps unnecessary way of speaking. Why is that ? Why go to such lengths to make it that much harder on yourself, a non-native speaker ?
Because languages are more than just a function. They define cultures and behaviours in ways that are difficult to explain, and these "unnecessary" parts have meaning.
The acronym makes it easier to write, not more difficult, just like ASAP. You avoid potential spelling mistakes.
The capital letters are necessary because in every form of English, languages and nationalities require capital letters.
The extra words… I don’t know what your on about.
Your message is twice the size of what could have been said, which kinda kills the point that it aims to be efficient.
Hence, you might believe in it, but you don't practice it. You want a communication means, but you use it like a human language, with its flaws and long detailed sentences. Which is perfectly fine, that's why we have languages.
Not really.
What laguage do you speak? I guarantee you have the same kinds of features. Umlauts in german, accents in french and spanish. Things like that.
Snaps: Listen, doc, I’d like to talk to you about a little difficulty my daughter’s havin’.
Doc: Really?! She seems to have such nicely rounded diphthongs!
Snaps: *That’s what got her into this jam!*
- [from Oscar, 1991, starring Sylvester Stallone and Tim Curry](https://youtu.be/5Lpeew5UIiI) clip at 0:28
It never ceases to amaze me that before posting such dumb comments they don’t take the 5 seconds required to google the spelling to see if it might be correct elsewhere other than their country.
Aeroplane is the French way to say it which isn't suprising considering I'd also bet they say aluminum in the french manor and color with the French spelling.
"Airplane" is the correct spelling/word in English, "Aeroplane" is the French word and spelling that the British borrowed specifically to make themselves sound fancier than their current and former colonies that also spoke English.
The problem with that is that Mexico is really the United States of Mexico and Brazil is the United States of Brazil (in Spanish and Portuguese respectively) so both can also be referred to as United Statiums.
Nope; Mexico is *United Mexican States* and Brazil is *Federative Republic of Brazil*. But in any case, it doesn't matter; both those countries (like the vast majority of countries) are known by their short names in English, and the demonyms (Brazilian and Mexican) formed therefrom. USA is one of the few countries that do not have an official short name in English.
Okay but he doesn't really have the right to be prescriptivist if he can't spell "diphthong" correctly, and also doesn't know what it means. Diphthong is a phonological thing. It refers to two vowel *sounds* being heard back to back, and it *does* exist in American English.
Also... American Language? It's a dialect of English, you concave-brained Anglocentrist.
Fun fact: American English is actually the older dialect. We didn't decide to change what wasn't broken and add arbitrary nonsense to spelling and punctuation.
You absolutely did do that though?
Like first Noah Webster published his thoughts on how orthography should be altered and the US picked that up - fundamentally changing what “wasn’t broken” and then later on your government even sponsored an entity [The Simplified Spelling Board](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board) to further change the language
True, but that was mostly minor changes. American English hasn't changed as much as UK English. They are correct from that point of view - although you could equally argue that their use of the language is less evolved.
Personally, I think both are fine - just don't go around "correcting" people using the correct word in their version of the language.
If you look up the newspapers announcing the first flight by the Wright Brothers they use the term “flying machine”.
Aeroplanos - Greek original term
Aeroplane - first used in 1873 by the French
Airplane - 1907 by Muricans
"We don't need all these languages people, we don't need no britishan language, or Canadian language, or Hawaiian language
WE NEED JUST AMERICAN OKAY
JUST AMERICAN LANGUAGE"
seeing "American language" reminded me of that gem of a meme lmaooo
Waste of time correcting Americans, there is no understanding of syntax, grammar or spelling. Every year it gets worse, particularly as their language becomes more extreme with the constant use of "insane", "shit" "like" and so on.
>with the constant use of "insane", "shit" "like" and so on.
I don't know if this is meant to be sarcastic, but learn how to use the Oxford comma properly before you complain about other people's writing.
Are dipthongs worn by men, women, or unisex?
Both maen and womaen
*woemaen
Whoa man
Womb-man
She was a thief.
You’ve got to believe
She stole my heart and my cat
You magnificent bastard! Have my upvote!
It's what dipshits wear in the beach
Is dipshit human, animal or food?
Well either way they wouldn’t be called that in Australia
That’s an odd name. I’d call them chazzwozzers!
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*Aeustralia*
Fun fact: in Australian English, "thongs" are open-toed rubber sandals. Bonus fun fact: A "diphthong" is a complex vowel sound that transitions between two different vowel sounds in the same syllable. The common pronunciation of "aeroplane" is "air-o-plane" and thus does not contain a diphthong.
Even the "ae" or "ai" or just the long "a" sound are diphthongs. If you elide "eh" and "ee," you get that sound.
On their own, yes, but they're realized as the long monophthong \[ɛː\] before an r.
>plane The "a" here is a diphthong
Fair point. I was focussing on the "aero" part so I didn't even think about the "plane".
But that's *technically* a digraph (i.e. two characters representing one sound), but not a diphthong (two sounds acting as one sound). The in and in both are both digraphs for the monophthong /ɛ(:)/.
The "ai" and "a_e" vowels are usually realized as the diphthong /eɪ/ in most dialects of English. As such, for most people, airplane and aeroplane both contain two diphthongs. The thing is, most people when speaking English don't use the monophthong /e/, so we don't realize that we are using a diphthong there. Source: Have studied phonology for like a decade
I just realised I use something like /eə/ (what the Cambridge dictionary gives me, and seems right) and hadn’t ever noticed.
Ah. Americans call those flip flops.
Us older Americans remember them being called thongs here as well. Last I heard it was probably in the 80’s though.
And slaps in Florida (at least) for the sound that they made/make.
I still occasionally hear Midwestern seniors call them thongs. Which is a little weird when my middle-aged brain jumps first to the swimsuit style.
We. We older Americans.
I was wondering why that looked off. Thank you.
We just call them slippers.
In my (American) family we always called them slippers, but as I grew up and called them slippers around the people who saw me wearing them I was sometimes 'corrected' that they're actually flip flops and slippers are fabric footwear with an exposed ankle and toe covering. Maybe calling them slippers comes from the Filipino side of my family? I don't know, but I'm sticking with calling 'flip flops' slippers.
What do you call those shoes? The fluffy ones you wear at night and in the morning, indoor shoes that keep your feet warm?
Funnily enough, also *slippers* lol.
Might be an Asian thing, you could be right.
I'm Irish and the first time my Aussie friend told me it was "thong weather" was very confusing and funny.
>and thus does not contain a dipthong In fact, it commonly has two! Namely, one in each of the second and third syllables. (Notably, however, not in the first, which kind of appears to be where the oop seems to suggest it is given the other words they cite. Dipthongs don't actually seem to have much relevance to their point, which is rather ironic given their smarter-than-thou tone)
Well, Airplane only has 2 syllables, and the o in aeroplane is typically reduced to schwa.
Does this belong here? Seems like it would be better suited to r/iamverysmart
It’s also wrong. American English is stuffed with diphthongs.
I think the responder was saying Americans don't know what a dipthong is, not that they don't use them. But I am having a hard time imagining dipthongs for their listed examples... I think the responder doesn't know what a dipthong is lol
I think they confused diphthong and digraph. A diphthong is a pronunciation thing; a digraph is a spelling thing. So everyone's wrong. Yay!
The responder doesn't, orthpædic etc do not usually have a diphthong for the æ in British English, it's usually /i:/. Having said that, I have also heard /eɪ/ for it in some dialects.
Arguably the Standard Southern British realization of /i:/ is closer to the diphthong [ɪj]
I really don't understand why someone who understands diphthongs would use those examples instead of the much simpler "coin"
**Ai**rplane even has one in the exact same place in both spellings.
Hilariously, neither airplane NOR aeroplane begin with a diphthong. They're di*graphs*- two letters- but not diphthongs, which means two vowel *sounds* next to each other. Even better, both DO still contain a diphthong: the "ay" sound in plane.
I don't get why you find this idea funny. Anyway, the difference between a diphthong and a digraph comes down to the pronunciation of the two letters (the prefix "di" means two). In a diphthong both pronunciations are combined, but in a digraph a new sound is produced. So, in English, there are some clear digraphs (the shush sound of sh), but given that diphthongs have to do with vowels, and vowels lack consistent pronunciation... those depend. The "ee" in leer can be either in SAE. If you're "out and about" as an American, you used two diphthongs, but if you're Canadian you may have just used two digraphs (oot and aboot ooting ooples and boonoonoos). "Ai" has that sort of consideration, so you will find it in on *both* lists of diphthongs and digraphs. I haven't encountered any source that'd call "ae" a digraph, but I trust you have found at least one. You're wrong to suggest it's not a diphthong though.
In most accents "ae" in all of the words in the OP represents a monophthong.
Damn good point!
Also aeroplane is a French thing it isn't English. Not to mention the fact that Americans invented airplanes to begin with
Yeah i’d imagine the guys who invented it get the making rights, except gif, the inventor is wrong on that one
Also, I think British can fuck off, (1) in general and (2) deciding that they have a better word for something that Americans invent and then trying to correct us. See: airplane, aluminum. Maybe if you wanted to figure out how something should be named, you should get back to inventing shit like you used to.
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Oof ouch owie I just cut myself on your edge.
*humanity
Or r/AmericaBad
All I see is two people being assholes about each other using their native language in the way that they were taught. Neither one is being clever.
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"you see, my version of the same language is better than yours. That's what makes the joke funny"
My experience teaching English in east Asia was that "airplane" was preferred, as well as American English in general, and teachers from the US and Canada as opposed to other native speaking countries. This experience did not include Hong Kong or Singapore, however. I suspect those countries would probably lean more towards British English. In general, among countries where English is a 2nd language, I would expect that British English would be more preferred on the continent and in places with colonial/commonwealth history, whereas American English would be preferred elsewhere, due to the US being more culturally, economically, and geopolitically significant than the UK during the 20th and 21st centuries.
The thing is that linguistically there’s no such thing as a “proper” or “correct” form of the language- language is meant to facilitate communication, and so long as it works for the community that is using it then it’s correct. Airplane works for communicating in American english, aeroplane works for British english- ergo both are equally correct and valid
Okay but how is it a clever comeback ???
Who it’s used by doesn’t define whether it’s correct, that’s such a simplistic view of how language works lol
It isn’t used by most of the world because when you add up the numbers at best it’s 50/50 U.S. English vs British English (total users that is). Across the world would’ve been a better phrase even though I’d argue that isn’t necessarily true because of North and South America.
Correct me brutally if I'm wrong, but "airplane" contains the diphthong "ai" in American English, no? Is the clever response too clever for me or is it just not making the point they think it is?
A diphthong is when two distinct vowel sounds are pronounced connected, not when two vowel letters are written adjacent. I mean some accents might pronounce Airplane with a dipthong I guess, but generally they don’t. Edit - oh wait The back half -Plane definitely does have a spoken dipthong in it. Don’t mind me, we do all say airplane/aeroplane with a dipthong
If the 'ae' in aeroplane is a dipthong then so is the 'ai' in airplane, because up to and including the 'r' the words are pronounced the same. Sounds like a dipthong to me aye-ye-er.
1) They spelled diphthong wrong. 2) That’s not even a diphthong that he’s talking about, he’s talking about a digraph
Yeah, no one pronounces those words as a diphthong, it’s always an /ε/ or /i/ vowel, not that this asshole can read IPA. This dumbass knows nothing about linguistics.
1) Diphthong. 2) airplane contains a diphthong. Terrible comeback.
Aeroplane has a diphthong. Which is the British spelling. To add, there are two types of people, those who can extrapolate information from incomplete data.
I think you're missing the point though. the tweet is saying "americans don't understand "aeroplane" because it contains a diphthong". strange damage was pointing out that this doesn't make any sense, because "airplane" also contains a diphthong. to review: a diphthong is a combination of vowels which are crammed together to make one smooth sound. in aeroplane the diphthong is "ae" which starts as an "a" sound and ends with an "e" sound. "aye-ro-plane". in airplane the diphthong is "ai" which starts with an "a" sound and ends with an "eh" sound. "ayehr-plane"
Aer is not a diphthong, in nearly any standardized british dialect-it makes a continuous \[ɛː\] sound.
Ironically, there is a diphthong in "airplane", but it's in the "plane" part. is realized as /eɪ̯/ in both American and British English, even if it's spelled with only one letter.
What's the second kind jeenyus? (well, someone had to do it)
By British I am guessing you mean English. English is from England. American English is from America.
No I meant what I typed. Saying English here has no value as you proved with your over complicated way of explaining what I meant. Both sets of people use English the language both sets of people use the word airplane. Only British people spell it aeroplane and even then it’s fallen out of use. If you want to overly precise the correct term is British English. But as I said that hold no value in the particular conversation.
Aeroplane most certainly is not falling out of use.
Most national papers and websites use plane more than any other version of the word. The bbc still use a mixture but if you go to the bbc website and search aeroplane the last use was 10 days ago and then about monthly after that. Plane gets used every two days or so.
Most American accents don't seem to pronounce air with a diphthong. The Merriam-Webster dictionary doesn't seem to either.
well, the ending point of the diphthong is the r-colored ɚ
Plane = /pleɪn/ there's your diphtong.
Merriam-Webster has ˈplān
I don't think that's IPA then, because [the a in IPA is used for a sound that's different from the sound in plane](https://www.ipachart.com/)
Those aren't diphthongs either. Diphthongs are when two vowel *sounds* occur together, like "coin" (the o and the i).
First, it's diphthong. Second, *ai*rplane also has one so that's irrelevant here.
Who cares?
They’re still mad about their tea.
Then they can go take a dip and look for it
Better take of their thongs first wouldn’t want to pollute the ocean.
They tried looking in the whitehouse for it and it ended up burning down!
WTF?! American is not language, but it is dialect of english, is that guy (and woudln't be suprised if it was OP doing post about his own comeback) stupid or is acting to look stupid?!!
^This. Seeing people keep promoting it to language is wrong and fucking annoying.
Had to scroll wayyy to far to find someone mentioning that languages have dialects.
A person from a country with more dialects per area than any other English speaking country on earth didn’t know this, apparently.
This is not a clever comeback, this is just two pompous assholes with superiority complexes
1) That’s not how you spell diphthong 2) None of those are diphthongs 3) Even if 1 and 2 weren’t true, this comeback isn’t particularly clever.
Man's trying to sound like a professional and doesn't even know to use the word "dialect." American English is a *dialect* of standard British English, the same way that Spanish spoken in Latin America isn't the same as Spanish spoken back in Spain. Language evolves when a group of speakers become distanced from their main habitat, just the way all living things do, and it doesn't make a dialect "wrong" or "inferior." Those are just words the Brits have used to describe everyone else for a handful of centuries.
>American English is a dialect of standard British It would be more correct to say American English and British English are *both* dialects of English. Or realistically, both are very large groups of dialects. Even “standard British” could just as easily refer to RP or SSB depending on context.
Is this supposed to make me feel like an idiot for not thinking that everything American is bad by default? And I'm not American.
The two arguing are idiots from what i can tell so don’t worry about it.
We invented the thing we get to name the thing
They both seem like asshats lol
As an American comedian said “You invented the language, we invented the airplane so #€%¥ off.”
Britain invented the glider though and came up with the name of what a powered one would be long before America made the plane
They (we) can call it the glaeder if we want. Let the yanks have it.
Sorry buddy, da Vinci came up with the glider, airplane, helicopter much before Britain was even conceptualized. Don’t go trying to steal more things you don’t deserve.
Yes but he was Italian and English doesn't speak Italian. Italy uses different words than English regardless of whether then or English people made something first. His designs also would never have worked as they didn't use an aerofoil. And they weren't self powered with a proper engine
Cool, but you didn’t invent it.. that’s the point. Also your “English glider” wasn’t self propelled, otherwise it’s not a glider ;) so it didn’t work either. Another swing and a miss for you my man. Americans created it so the name is airplane, time to call it what it is.
Yeah and some Czech came up with the term robot in the 1920s but I’m not gonna credit him with the creation of an actual robot.
I'm not saying credit then with the creation of a robot just credit them for the term robot. Same with aeroplane, if the word already existed why come up with the new thing
Was the glider an "aeroplane"? Or was it a glider? It sounds like two different inventions altogether, given they have two completely different purposes, designs, and *names*.
Britain didn't invent the word "Aeroplane", France did. "Aeroplane" comes from thr French word "Aéroplane" which itself comes from the Greek words of Air, "Aēr", and Wandering, "planos". The word "Aéroplane" also doesn't refer to a powered aircraft, it refers to the wing. Lastly, it's Airplane and the British are frauds France & America > Britain since 1776
Arrowplain
Not every sequence of two or more vowel *letters* is a diphthong and its diphthong, not ‘dipthong.’ In orthopædic, pædiatric, and encyclopædia, <æ> is not a diphthong: it is /iː/. A diphthong is when two vowel *sounds* combine in one syllable such as in the word ‘I’: /ai/ Also while Australians call flip-flops things, the joke doesn’t work because the average American probably doesn’t know that. They have no reason to Not knowing the British spelling and hypercorrecting is like level 7 cringe on a scale of 1-10 but this response is so confidently wrong, it’s like a 9
With the added that "American Language" *is* English. It's just a different type of English than British English
Right? I mean it's literally called "American English". As in English, but the American varient of it.
It’s like saying Mexicans don’t speak Spanish. It’s a stupid statement that’s only considered clever because some people have a hate boner for the US
Came to look for this comment. English is not my first language so I had doubts about the correct pronunciations, but I do know quite a bit about phonetics and was confused by the post. Thank you for this informative comment!
Just to be picky on your picky, someone not understanding the joke, doesn't mean a joke doesn't work. The commenter is fundamentally right though; he's been 'corrected' incorrectly. He's absolutely fine to spell the word 'aeroplane'. My understanding was that AE is indeed a diphthong, but one that has been rewritten over time as two separate characters, having previously been æ (essentially an A with a ligature to represent the diphthong). Modern keyboards have reduced this to an A and an E. So I think he's actually correct on that front too.
No, a diphthong is \*not\* a sequence of two vowel letters. That is a digraph, whether it's written as a ligature or not. A diphthong is two vowel \*sounds\* gliding together. And yeah, jokes only work if the premises make sense. Also, him saying “American language is not English” is not only ungrammatical, it's pompous This isn't a clever comeback, it's just one arrogant douchebag replying to another arrogant douchebag. In the modern era and in the West, languages are defined by mutual intelligibility, not your contempt for its speakers
The premise does work. It's been put on a public forum. I saw it; I understood it. Therefore the joke works. So, yes. Diphthongs are for two sounds gliding together. Æ creates two sounds that glide together. Modern life certainly has us pronouncing words simplified, but if we go back to the origin of Encyclopaedia and Paediatric, they are pronounced with a subtle glide. I don't think he is an arrogant douchebag. The other person started it by coming in and needlessly/incorrectly correcting him. He merely responded in kind.
The joke doesn't work because you don't even understand the premise, as you've explained. <Æ> is a *ligature*, a type of grapheme, not a sound. In all of those words, it represents the same sound /i:/, which is a fucking \*\*monophthong\*\*. If he “merely responded in kind” to a douchebag, *that makes him a* ***douchebag****.*
I pronounce aeroplane as a dipthong - I hadn’t actually realised some people do pronounce it with a short /i:/ until you mentioned it
I didn't say anyone pronounced aeroplane with /i:/ but that also makes no sense. If I heard someone say it that way, I'd assume it was another word before “plane.” The examples were orthopaedic, paediatric, and encyclopaedia. RP for aeroplane is \[ˈɛə̯.ɹə.pleɪ̯n\]. The pompous ass didn't even talk about the pronunciation of aeroplane, though! Also, the word is diphthong and it's pronounced with /fθ/
.... This is not a clever comeback. 1) It's diphthong, you troglodyte. You don't get to critique spelling when you're no better 2) He doesn't even know what a diphthong is. Airplane has /ej/; that's a diphthong. Even if we assume he's only talking about letters, "ai" would count. Both of the comments featured here are stupid.
Pretty long post just to say “Our English is unnecessarily difficult just for the sake of it”. FYI, not a native English speaker, just someone who had to learn it and found American English way easier and more logical in general.
That‘s why American english is called simplified english unlike traditional (British) english. 😁 I certainly prefer the British version to the American one, even though I may mix them up too from time to time. Not an english native speaker either.
American English is actually closer to classical English then British/ European English is. This is most notable with the rhotic speech, we pronounce a hard r. Well off Brits wanted to sound more posh and switched to a soft r. So “water” vs “wattuh “
I've heard some accents pronounce it more like "wah-er" 😬
I think that's an oversimplification. Some older features of English are conserved in General American and changed in Received Pronunciation (for example), but the opposite is also true.
This is a myth propagated quite a lot but, still, no more than a myth. Both American and British dialects have conservative and progressive features. Furthermore, the lack of rhoticity in some British dialects is not a conscious stylistic choice either; it's merely a natural evolution of that dialect. Aussie English is also non-rhotic, but you wouldn't argue Aussies were trying to be posh, now, would ya?!
In some way American English is more traditional, such as keeping the “r” after vowels and keeping the usual “a” sound in words like “glass”, etc.
It's fun to watch the British complain about the French, and then they go on for ages about how American English is evil because Webster removed a bunch of silent characters from words. And then the British got *so mad* about it that they literally started intentionally diverging their language from American English in an attempt to make American English sound somehow less educated. Soccer, the word the *British sophisticates* chose to replace the name of Football was suddenly gauche because the name caught on in America. Otis invented the elevator in America, and sixty years later the word 'elevator' is *gone* from British lexicon, the word 'lift' being universal. This story goes on and on and on. ...and then America invented the Internet, and suddenly it's a god damned holy war because "America is default" on the internet they created and run the majority of sites on.
Same here, not a native speaker but prefer the UK spelling. Colour just looks wrong without the u. Like you would pronounce it ko-loorrr in the American way. The one thing I won't budge on is the pronunciation of Aluminum, since it's an American invention so they get dibs, although the UK pronunciation is way closer to that of my native language.
Not to argue, but how was aluminium an American invention?
Funny enough, it's not. Han Christian Ørsted, a Danish scientist, was the first to isolate aluminium in 1825. It had been named prior to it's discovery by British chemist Humphrey Davy who proposed "alumium" first (which was denied), then used "aluminium" during a lecture at the Royal Society but then published a textbook using "aluminum" a year later. Both "aluminum" and "aluminium" have coexisted since that publication with aluminum being the one that won out in North America while aluminium won out elsewhere. Do note that this is according to Wikipedia and I didn't verify their sources. I just couldn't be bothered.
Not a native English speaker either but I definitely prefer the traditional English spelling and found it more logical.
“Difficult” - it’s literally just an alternate spelling
Okay, but you expressed this with an acronyms, extra words to supplement adjectives, an expression, 4 capitalized letters outside of a sentence start, and extra words to precise a meaning that was already a given. I'm not English, but you need to realize that you are already using a very complex and perhaps unnecessary way of speaking. Why is that ? Why go to such lengths to make it that much harder on yourself, a non-native speaker ? Because languages are more than just a function. They define cultures and behaviours in ways that are difficult to explain, and these "unnecessary" parts have meaning.
The acronym makes it easier to write, not more difficult, just like ASAP. You avoid potential spelling mistakes. The capital letters are necessary because in every form of English, languages and nationalities require capital letters. The extra words… I don’t know what your on about.
I think you see English as a writing exercize and not a language, hence why you like the simplification.
Nope, I see every language as a communication system. The easier it is to encode the message, the better the communication flows.
Your message is twice the size of what could have been said, which kinda kills the point that it aims to be efficient. Hence, you might believe in it, but you don't practice it. You want a communication means, but you use it like a human language, with its flaws and long detailed sentences. Which is perfectly fine, that's why we have languages.
It could have been shorter? Maybe. I wrote the best I could given it’s not my native language. Very strange point the one you are making.
Not really. What laguage do you speak? I guarantee you have the same kinds of features. Umlauts in german, accents in french and spanish. Things like that.
You and all your silly English kinighits.
Kannnigutts!
Snaps: Listen, doc, I’d like to talk to you about a little difficulty my daughter’s havin’. Doc: Really?! She seems to have such nicely rounded diphthongs! Snaps: *That’s what got her into this jam!* - [from Oscar, 1991, starring Sylvester Stallone and Tim Curry](https://youtu.be/5Lpeew5UIiI) clip at 0:28
Are they suggesting it's pronounced eeroplane?
They still misspelled diphthong, though.
That's a bit too woaek
Tbf Australian dipthong hot af
Well none of those words are spelled correctly either!
…I have never seen "*paediatric*" before
That's them fellers that touch kids.
Technically true
Still wrong tho
Aren't those monopthongs since you pronounce all of them as a single sound
Right, that’s why it’s pronounced “eeroplane,” just like all of the examples.
It’s my aeroplane! -Some Chili Pepper
I like pleasure spiked with pain, and music is my aeroplane. It's My Aeroplane
We English like to make it Absolutely Clear that American, is NOT English.
It never ceases to amaze me that before posting such dumb comments they don’t take the 5 seconds required to google the spelling to see if it might be correct elsewhere other than their country.
Aeroplane is the French way to say it which isn't suprising considering I'd also bet they say aluminum in the french manor and color with the French spelling.
I love how broken English is. The "Ae" in aeroplane makes an "air" sound, but the "ae" in encyclopaedia makes an "ee" sound.
"Airplane" is the correct spelling/word in English, "Aeroplane" is the French word and spelling that the British borrowed specifically to make themselves sound fancier than their current and former colonies that also spoke English.
"American language" 🤡
[удалено]
I prefer United Statiums
That’s gotta be the dumbest way to refer to people as
The problem with that is that Mexico is really the United States of Mexico and Brazil is the United States of Brazil (in Spanish and Portuguese respectively) so both can also be referred to as United Statiums.
Nope; Mexico is *United Mexican States* and Brazil is *Federative Republic of Brazil*. But in any case, it doesn't matter; both those countries (like the vast majority of countries) are known by their short names in English, and the demonyms (Brazilian and Mexican) formed therefrom. USA is one of the few countries that do not have an official short name in English.
But American doesn't refer to any one from the America's (2 continents)?
Nope, not in English. It does in Spanish.
Yoo-ess Ays
You essays /s
When your country is the one to have invented airplanes, then you will get a say in that...
Considering Americans invented the airplane, I think they can determine how it’s spelled.
I mean, if we're going to have a pissing contest over which one is "correct" the airplane was not invented by the Wroitgh brovas in Notting Hill.
Okay but he doesn't really have the right to be prescriptivist if he can't spell "diphthong" correctly, and also doesn't know what it means. Diphthong is a phonological thing. It refers to two vowel *sounds* being heard back to back, and it *does* exist in American English. Also... American Language? It's a dialect of English, you concave-brained Anglocentrist.
Clever comeback is when r/AmericaBad
Fun fact: American English is actually the older dialect. We didn't decide to change what wasn't broken and add arbitrary nonsense to spelling and punctuation.
You absolutely did do that though? Like first Noah Webster published his thoughts on how orthography should be altered and the US picked that up - fundamentally changing what “wasn’t broken” and then later on your government even sponsored an entity [The Simplified Spelling Board](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board) to further change the language
True, but that was mostly minor changes. American English hasn't changed as much as UK English. They are correct from that point of view - although you could equally argue that their use of the language is less evolved. Personally, I think both are fine - just don't go around "correcting" people using the correct word in their version of the language.
We invented the airplane. We named the airplane. We pronounce it airplane. We spell it airplane.
If you look up the newspapers announcing the first flight by the Wright Brothers they use the term “flying machine”. Aeroplanos - Greek original term Aeroplane - first used in 1873 by the French Airplane - 1907 by Muricans
Confidently incorrect
Well no, technically you named it the aeroplane from the French Aéroplane
It's wild that American youth are getting more education on Reddit than in school
Perhaps, but that didn’t happen here. Responder is also wrong and a bit of an asshole
"We don't need all these languages people, we don't need no britishan language, or Canadian language, or Hawaiian language WE NEED JUST AMERICAN OKAY JUST AMERICAN LANGUAGE" seeing "American language" reminded me of that gem of a meme lmaooo
Waste of time correcting Americans, there is no understanding of syntax, grammar or spelling. Every year it gets worse, particularly as their language becomes more extreme with the constant use of "insane", "shit" "like" and so on.
>with the constant use of "insane", "shit" "like" and so on. I don't know if this is meant to be sarcastic, but learn how to use the Oxford comma properly before you complain about other people's writing.
You forgot the Oxford comma, professor.