Synizesis

Synizesis (ˌsɪnəˈziːsɪs) 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 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, however 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, however has not entered popular use. Homer, Iliad 1.