syneresis
- noun
- /sɪˈnɛrɪsɪs/
- Specialized
- The word 'poet' can undergo syneresis in rapid speech, sounding like a single syllable.
Examples
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In poetry, syneresis often occurs when two vowels are pronounced together as one syllable.
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Linguists study syneresis to understand changes in language pronunciation over time.
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The term syneresis refers to a specific phonetic phenomenon.
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In linguistics, syneresis can create a smoother pronunciation.
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In poetry, syneresis occurs when two adjacent vowels combine to form a single syllable, creating a diphthong.
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The word 'idea' demonstrates syneresis in casual speech, blending the vowels into one syllable.
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Linguists often analyze syneresis to explore how vowel combinations can shift in pronunciation.
Synonyms
Pronouncing two vowels next to each other in a word as one vowel sound
Surface Forms
Etymology
Syneresis comes from the prefix syn- meaning 'together', the same root you see in synergy and synchronize. So it literally means 'bringing together', which is a handy image for the linguistic sense where two vowels join into a single sound.