synalepha

English

Alternative forms

• synalœpha, synaloepha

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek συναλοιφή (sunaloiphḗ, “a coalescing, confluence”).

Noun

synalepha (countable and uncountable, plural synalephas)

1. The suppression of a vowel at the end of word when it is followed by another word beginning with a vowel.
2. The melding into a single syllable of two vowels from two different syllables.

Translations

melding of separate vowels into a single syllable

• Finnish: synalefa
• French: synalèphe (fr) f
• Italian: sinalefe (it) f
• Occitan: sinalèfa f
• Portuguese: sinalefa (pt) f
• Spanish: sinalefa (es) f

Further reading

• “synalepha”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• synalepha on Wikipedia.Wikipedia