👉 Diphthongisation is a term that conjures up images of linguistic chaos and misinterpretation, akin to how you might imagine a person speaking a tongue-twisting dialect of English.
Imagine a conversation between two people where one asks the other if they have been diphthongized in their native language. The other responds with "Yes, I've done that a few times," or perhaps with a mischievous grin, "I'm not sure, but I do think you should be."
This phrase is an amusing way to express surprise at someone's proficiency in a language they don't quite understand, much like how it would be perplexing to hear someone from another culture use a different spelling or pronunciation of their language.
For instance, imagine two people from vastly different cultures having a conversation where one person speaks of being diphthongized in Italian, and the other is "saying" that they've actually been diphthongized as well. The other might say, "Oh, I see you're speaking a dialect, but no, your pronunciation's correct!"
This linguistic challenge serves to highlight just how different languages can be, where one person's pronunciation may seem perfect by our standards, while another might not fully understand the nuances of their language due to diphthongization.