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cliche · 06-20-2004, 12:51 AM

This one's been bugging me for a while.

In the UK and US there are many words we spell differently. A lot of these are (medical) words with double vowels eg:
oesophagus - esophagus
foetus - fetus
mediaeval - medieval
haemoglobin - hemoglobin

This is mostly a complete pain when I have to search US databases for medical information and remember to spell words differently.

I'd like to know the name of what I'm angry at. I don't think they're 'diphthongs' - or at least that's not specific enough, as 'ou' in 'loud' is a diphthong - it's any two vowels making one sound. My problem is usually 'ae' or 'oe', and when you see them written the letters are often squashed together (unlike 'loud').

So what's the word for what causes my problems?

06-20-2004, 12:51 AM	#1 (permalink)
cliche Rookie Location: Oxford, UK	Two vowels joined together This one's been bugging me for a while. In the UK and US there are many words we spell differently. A lot of these are (medical) words with double vowels eg: oesophagus - esophagus foetus - fetus mediaeval - medieval haemoglobin - hemoglobin This is mostly a complete pain when I have to search US databases for medical information and remember to spell words differently. I'd like to know the name of what I'm angry at. I don't think they're 'diphthongs' - or at least that's not specific enough, as 'ou' in 'loud' is a diphthong - it's any two vowels making one sound. My problem is usually 'ae' or 'oe', and when you see them written the letters are often squashed together (unlike 'loud'). So what's the word for what causes my problems? __________________ I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -- John Cage (1912 - 1992) Last edited by cliche; 06-20-2004 at 12:56 AM..