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Aspurious diphthong (orfalse diphthong) is anAncient Greekvowel that is etymologically along vowel but written exactly like a truediphthongει, ου (ei, ou).[1]
A spurious diphthong has two origins: fromcompensatory lengthening of shortε, ο (e, o) afterdeletion of a consonant or contraction of two vowels:[2]
In general, spuriousει, ου contracts fromε, ο + ε, ο, ει, ου. The specific rules are more complex.
By contrast, true diphthongs aree oro placed beforei oru. Some come frome-grade ofablaut +i, oro-grade +u, co-existing beside forms with the other grade:
Early in thehistory of Greek, the diphthong versions of ει and ου were pronounced as[ei̯, ou̯], the long vowel versions as[eː, oː]. By theClassical period, the diphthong and long vowel had merged in pronunciation and were both pronounced as longmonophthongs[eː, oː].
By the time ofKoine Greek, ει and ου had shifted to[iː, uː]. (The shift of a Greek vowel toi is callediotacism.) InModern Greek, distinctive vowel length has been lost, and all vowels are pronounced short:[i, u].
Longe ando existed in two forms inAttic-Ionic:ει, ου andη, ω (ē, ō). In earlier Severer[7]Doric, by contrast, onlyη, ω counted as a long vowel, and it was the vowel of contraction.[8] In later forms of Doric, it contracted toει, ου. Throughout the history of Doric, compensatory lengthening resulted inη, ω.[9]
"Severe" refers to the sterner-soundingopen pronunciation ofη, ω[ɛː, ɔː], in contrast to thecloserει, ου[eː, oː].
The sub-dialects of Laconia, Crete, and Southern Italy, and of their several colonies, are often called Severer (or Old) Doric; the others are called Milder (or New) Doric. Severer Doric has η and ω where Milder Doric has ει and ου.