>I've been looking forward to your contribution hoping you would tell
>us someting about these diphthongs. I'd be interested in two things:
>from the descriptions I've read and from my own informal
>observations of spoken Lithuanian I gather that they are in fact
>long mid-high vowels ([e:] and [o:]) preceded by semivocalic
>onglides. If so, something like [je:], [wo:] could do as a rough
>transcription. Do you agree?

I'll try to evade the onglide-thingies that I'm not competent with
and rather rely on practical examples :). I forgot to use Spanish to
demonstrate diphtongs in action (I studied Spanish some four years
ago so it needs revising). The language has many diphtongs,
including "ie": pierna, invierno (and not quite the [je:] as
in "hierro"!). I believe a very similar diphtong can be heard in
German "Wien" (Vienna).
As to "uo", it's more complicated. You hear something similar
in "walk" or Oceanian placenames ("Wogga Wogga") but "uo" starts with
the same "u" that can be heard in "pull" and not with "w". If I'm not
mistaken (I don't speak Italian), the Italian "uomo" or "uovo" are
where the diphtong can be found in its "pure" form.

>Strangely, the Lithuanian terminology and accent marks are the
>reverse of what is used for other languages.

Let me verify it with an English example:

"gal" (an acute sign on "a") vs "held" (a circumflex on "l"; there
may be only a short [e] in the word - a grave sign?)

That would be the Lithuanian accent marks.

Juozas Rimas