monophthongization

Monophthongization is a sound change by which a diphthong becomes a monophthong, a type of vowel shift. It is also known as ungliding, as diphthongs are also known as gliding vowels. In languages that have undergone monophthongization, digraphs that formerly represented diphthongs now represent monophthongs. The opposite of monophthongization is vowel breaking.

==Arabic== Classical Arabic had two diphthongs, and , which are realised as the long vowels and in numerous Arabic dialects. This monophthongization has further developed into and , respectively, in urban North African dialects.