Greek Language/Diphthongs

In linguistics, a diphthong is a structure consisting of two vowels, which are pronounced as two phthongs but in the time of one syllable. In modern Greek there are 7 diphthongs, presented in the following table.

Diphthongs	Pronunciation	Notes
αϊ	[ai]	Pronounced like mine or iron.
αη		Pronounced the same as αϊ.
αϋ		Pronounced the same as αϊ.
οϊ	[oi]	Pronounced like moist or oyster.
οη		Pronounced the same as οϊ.
οϋ		Pronounced the same as οϊ.
εϋ	[ei]	Pronounced like main or same.

You may have noticed that most diphthongs look like the two-vowels vowels and combinations ευ and αυ. However, they are distinguished by the fact that over ι and υ there are special signs, similar to the Umlaut of the German language. These signs are called diaeresis (Greek: διαλυτικά) and are always used to separate a vowels' digraph, requiring as a result the independent pronunciation of each vowel the digraph is consisted of.