Synalepha

A synalepha or synaloepha /ˌsɪnəˈliːfə/[1] is the merging of two syllables into one, especially when it causes two words to be pronounced as one.

Sound change and alternation
Metathesis
Lenition
Fortition
Epenthesis
Elision
Transphonologization
Assimilation
Dissimilation
Sandhi
Synalepha
Other types

The original meaning in Ancient Greek is more general than modern usage and includes coalescence of vowels within a word. Similarly, synalepha most often refers to elision (as in English contraction), but it can also refer to coalescence by other metaplasms: synizesis, synaeresis or crasis.[2]

Examples

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

Notes
  1. Greek συναλοιφή (or συναλιφή), from συναλείφω: συν- "together" and ἀλείφω "I anoint", "smear". Alternation between οι, ει, and ι in verb root is ablaut.
  2. W. Sidney Allen, Vox Graeca, chart of "Types of vowel-junction", p. 98.
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