Diaphoneme

Pronunciation

• GenAm IPA: /ˈdaɪəˌfoÊŠnim/, /ËŒdaɪəˈfoÊŠnim/
• RP IPA: /daɪəˈfəʊniːm/
• Hyphenation: di + a + pho + neme

Origin

- + phoneme

Full definition of diaphoneme

Noun

1. (linguistics) An abstract phonological unit that represents collectively the dialectal variants of a phoneme.
• 1980, S. Noble & Joshua Fishman (translators), M. Weinrich (author), P. Glasser (editor), History of the Yiddish Language II (2008), chapter vii, pages 467

• The series with the long a as a point of departure…today has the diaphoneme , and to be exhaustive the diaphoneme should be rendered , for in western Yiddish there are also the articulations and (sleep). From the point of departure of long e (Early Vowel Eâ‚‚) Yiddish arrived at the diaphoneme , for example in veynik (little) (cf. MHG wênic). In groys (big; Early Vowel Oâ‚‚) (cf. MHG groÈ¥), Yiddish has the diaphoneme ; with the variant of Samogitia–Latvia (7.35), the symbolization will become still more complicated: .

Derived terms

• diaphonematic
• diaphonemic
• diaphonemically
• diaphonemics