Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
Probably not, because this diphthong is quite often treated as though it were a "pure" vowel sound when children are learning about phonics in school. And at least in the US, dictionaries have traditionally used māt (that is, one vowel with a macron) instead of meɪt (that is, with a diphthong) to show the pronunciation of "mate".
That's very interesting, thank you for detailed answers!
I am particularly interested in "relative language peception", if there is such a term.
BTW, do you know any on-line resources where I could see how phonics is taught to children in US schools?