Synizesis

Synizesis ( ) is a sound change (metaplasm) in which two originally syllabic vowels (hiatus) are pronounced instead as a single syllable. In poetry, the vowel contraction would often be necessitated by the metrical requirements of the poetic form. Synizesis is also understood to occur as a natural product in the evolution of a language over time. A tie may be used to represent this pronunciation: dē͡hinc (i.e., deinc).

Synizesis ( ) is a sound change (metaplasm) in which two originally syllabic vowels (hiatus) are pronounced instead as a single syllable. In poetry, the vowel contraction would often be necessitated by the metrical requirements of the poetic form. Synizesis is also understood to occur as a natural product in the evolution of a language over time. A tie may be used to represent this pronunciation: dē͡hinc (i.e., deinc). ==Definition== Synizesis comes from the Greek (synízēsis, "a sitting together") from (syn, "with") and (hizō, "I sit"). The term was used to describe this vowel change as early as the 2nd century CE, by the Alexandrian grammarian, Hephaestion. Ancient grammarians, such as Hephaestion, defined synizesis broadly as the “σύλληψις” (syllepsis, “a taking together (of sounds)”) of any two syllables. More contemporary scholarship has, however, recognised that, when so constructed, synizesis is given an unjustifiably broad meaning. Synizesis is now confined to describing the fusion of two adjacent syllabic vowels. It may occur within a word, or at the boundary between words. There is disagreement as to the definition of synizesis in three areas. First, scholars disagree whether synizesis exists when a word’s spelling changes. The initial presumption was that synizesis occasions no change in spelling, but this requirement has been ignored and criticised. Second, though synizesis has been understood as a process of desyllabification, some scholars contend that vowels that have been fused together are not truly monosyllabic. Third, it is unclear whether the deletion of one of the two vowel sounds may be considered synizesis. That is typically described as synalepha or elision. These disagreements come as a result of the fact that languages rarely have a means of distinguishing between hiatic and synizetic pronunciation via their script. To avoid these definitional inconsistencies, “synecphonesis” has been suggested as an all-encompassing replacement to synizesis, but has not entered popular use. ===Ancient Greek=== ===Latin=== Vergil, Aeneid: In the first and third examples, the final two vowels undergo synizesis in order to form the anceps at the end of the line. -ei would be pronounced as a diphthong (this diphthong exists ordinarily in Latin, albeit never in a word final position, but for in Greek names as here), and -eo with a glide, giving [jo]. In the second example, a dactylic fifth foot (-cāt dĕhĭnc) is impossible, as de- and -hinc are both long syllables. As such, the only possible construction involves the synizetic reduction of “dehinc”. Note synizesis is still possible here, though the vowels are not adjacent, as the Latin /h/ phoneme was not a strong consonant. Poetry of the Old Latin period had different conventions for synizesis. In Augustan poetry, the syllable being obscured or suppressed by synizesis was unstressed. For example, in "alveō" ("in the hollow"), the stress lies on the first syllable, and the unstressed second syllable joins with the third in synizesis. However, in Plautine Latin, the syllable suppressed by synizesis was stressed, such as in "meō" ("my"), where the stress lies on the "e". The consequence of this is that no two unstressed syllables may undergo synizesis in old Latin. Plautine synizesis frequently occurs in the case of proclitics and enclitics, minor words which do not naturally demand stress, however also occurs in the case of substantive and emphatic nouns and verbs, such as "deō" ("for god") and "sciō" ("I know"). What has been argued to be important, however, is not the word itself, but its context and function in the sentence. Substantive nouns may yet be subordinate to more important words in the sentence, and as such may be "[unable] to resist slurring". ==See also== Metaplasm Synalepha Elision Contraction (grammar) Crasis Synaeresis ==References==

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