A synalepha or synaloepha is the
merging of two syllables into one, especially when it causes two words to be pronounced as one.
The original meaning in
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
is more general than modern usage and includes coalescence of vowels within a word. Similarly, synalepha most often refers to
elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
(as in English
contraction
Contraction may refer to:
Linguistics
* Contraction (grammar), a shortened word
* Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons
* Elision, omission of sounds
** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word
* Synalepha, merged ...
), but it can also refer to coalescence by other
metaplasms:
synizesis,
synaeresis
In linguistics, synaeresis (; also spelled syneresis) is a phonological process of sound change in which two adjacent vowels within a word are ''combined'' into a single syllable.
The opposite process, in which two adjacent vowels are pronounce ...
or
crasis
Crasis (; from the Greek , "mixing", "blending"); cf. , "I mix" ''wine with water''; '' kratēr'' "mixing-bowl" is related. is a type of contraction in which two vowels or diphthongs merge into one new vowel or diphthong, making one word out of ...
.
[ W. Sidney Allen, ''Vox Graeca'', chart of "Types of vowel-junction", p. 98.]
Examples
{{Original research, date=January 2022, section
Spanish, Portuguese and Italian use synalepha, which is important in counting syllables in poetry. An example is in this
hendecasyllable (11-syllable line) by
Garcilaso de la Vega:
: ''Los cabellos que al oro oscurecían.''
:: The hair that endarkened the gold.
The words ''que'' and ''al'' form one syllable in counting them because of synalepha. The same thing happens with ''-ro'' and ''os-'' and so the line has eleven syllables (syllable boundaries are shown by a
dot):
: ''Los·ca·be·llos·queal·o·roos·cu·re·cí·an.''
See also
*
Metaplasm
**
Elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
—
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds.
In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviation ...
***
Apheresis (initial)
***
Syncope (medial)
***
Apocope
In phonology, apocope () is the loss ( elision) of a word-final vowel. In a broader sense, it can refer to the loss of any final sound (including consonants) from a word.
Etymology
''Apocope'' comes from the Greek () from () "cutting off", fro ...
(final)
**
Crasis
Crasis (; from the Greek , "mixing", "blending"); cf. , "I mix" ''wine with water''; '' kratēr'' "mixing-bowl" is related. is a type of contraction in which two vowels or diphthongs merge into one new vowel or diphthong, making one word out of ...
**
Synizesis (merge into one syllable without change in writing)
**
Synaeresis
In linguistics, synaeresis (; also spelled syneresis) is a phonological process of sound change in which two adjacent vowels within a word are ''combined'' into a single syllable.
The opposite process, in which two adjacent vowels are pronounce ...
—opposite
Diaeresis
*
Correption
In Latin and Greek poetry, correption ( la, correptiō , "a shortening") is the shortening of a long vowel at the end of one word before a vowel at the beginning of the next. Vowels next to each other in neighboring words are in hiatus.
Homer ...
Notes
Figures of speech
Phonology