▪ I. diaphone1
(ˈdaɪəfəʊn)
[f. dia-1 + phone n.2]
A low-pitched fog signal operated by compressed air and characterized by the ‘grunt’ which ends each note. Also attrib.
| 1906 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 Jan. 6/5 The fog alarm will consist of a diaphone, operated by compressed air. 1950 Engineering 29 Dec. 570/1 Three types of sound signal compared were a diaphone with a fundamental frequency of about 180 cycles p. second, [etc.]. 1970 Motor Boat & Yachting 16 Oct. 36/1 The fog horn was one of the diaphone type and I can't beat the description in Reed's—‘a strong note of low tone ending with a well-defined {oqq}grunt{cqq}’. |
▪ II. diaphone2 Linguistics.
(ˈdaɪəfəʊn)
[f. dia-1 + phone n.1]
All the different forms of a phoneme that collectively occur in all the dialects of a language (see quot. 1932).
| 1932 D. Jones Outl. Eng. Phonet. (ed. 3) xi. 52 The term diaphone is used to denote a sound used by one group of speakers together with other sounds which replace it in the pronunciation of other speakers. 1950 [see diaphonic a.2]. 1953 W. J. Entwistle Aspects of Lang. iv. 114 The diaphones are also found in the speech of a single individual. 1961 Kurath & McDavid Pronunc. Eng. in Atlantic States iii. 101 (heading) The regional and social dissemination of the diaphones of stressed vowels. |