diphone, n. Phonetics.
Brit. /ˈdʌɪfəʊn/, U.S. /ˈdaɪˌfoʊn/
[‹ di- comb. form + -phone comb. form.]
A speech unit consisting of two phones (phone n.1). Cf. monophone n. 3.
| 1897 Phonetische Studien 11 18 To these may be added..diphone and triphone, to signify compounds of two or three phones functioning jointly either as autophone or symphone. 1955 Africa 25 401 It may also be of value in tonal analysis to divide tense signs into zeros, monophones, diphones and above. 2000 Personal Computer World Jan. 108 The use of diphones, in combination with various synthesis techniques, produces speech that is intelligible and requires relatively little computing power. |