Re: Lenition or Elision or What?

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, R A Brown <ray@C...> wrote:

>It seems to me that in fact there is _only_ coalescence: [mi] -->
>[m_j] and [mu] --> [m_w].
>I guess, because the coalescence is triggered by two vowels coming
>together, it could be term 'synizetic coalescence' (but not IMO
>coalescent synizesis).
I love you guys!  Thanks a lot for hashing this out for me.  I had
not known these terms (although I did know dieresis).  And I love
this list.  I'm here several times a day (work permitting) to find
out what there is new to learn.

I think I'll go with a simple "coalescence."  I needed the term for
my Senjecan grammar so I could explain the phenomenon to the reader.

FWIW here are the definitions from AHD:

syneresis: The drawing together into one syllable of two consecutive
vowels ordinarily pronounced separately.

synizesis: The contraction of two syllables into one by joining in
pronunciation two adjacent vowels. Compare syneresis. (Interesting
Greek etymology: to sit down together!)

At first I couldn't see the difference!  But now I think I do.  The
definition of synizesis mentions pronunciation specifically, so I
would imagine that there is a coalescence of pronunciation, but not
of spelling.  If that is the case, I would think that the
Senjecan /mi/ --> /mï/ would be synizesis.  This doesn't show well
on the list.  In "real" spelling the "m" has a cedilla which is the
sign of palatalization.

Again, many thanks.

Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

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