diaphone

[dahy-uh-fohn]

noun

1. a foghorn producing a low-pitched, penetrating signal of two tones.

2. Phonetics.

   1. a phoneme in one dialect corresponding to a similar but phonetically different phoneme in a related dialect.

   2. a group of sounds comprising all the phonetically different dialectal variants of a given phoneme in a language.

      The broad a and flat a of “half” are members of a single diaphone.

diaphone

/ ˈdaɪəˌfəʊn /

noun

1. 1. the set of all realizations of a given phoneme in a language

   2. one of any number of corresponding sounds in different dialects of a language

2. a foghorn that emits a two-toned signal

Word History and Origins

Origin of diaphone¹

First recorded in 1905–10; dia- + -phone

Word History and Origins

Origin of diaphone¹

C20: from _dia ( _lect ) + _phone ²

Example Sentences

But the payoff for me came when he demonstrated the station’s rare 1934 diaphone fog signal, which sounds off with two descending blasts, basso profundo.

From Los Angeles Times

From the lighthouse station far to the east he could hear the low, steady intonation of the fog signal diaphone.

From Literature

The whistle of the freighter and the lighthouse diaphone sounded again in the fog.

From Literature