Hiatus (linguistics)
Encyclopedia
In phonology
, hiatus (haɪˈeɪtəs; hɪˈaːtʊs "gaping") or diaeresis (daɪˈɛrɨsɨs or daɪˈɪərɨsɨs, from Ancient Greek
diaíresis "division") refers to two vowel
sounds occurring in adjacent syllable
s, with no intervening consonant
. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong
.
The English words hiatus and diaeresis themselves contain a hiatus between the first and second syllables.
, Bantu languages
such as Swahili
and Zulu
, and Polynesian languages
such as Hawaiian
and Maori
. Extreme examples are Japanese aoi 'blue/green', Swahili eua 'to purify', and Hawaiian aea 'to rise up', all of which are three syllables.
or a glide
may be added (epenthesis
) between vowels to prevent hiatus.
dialects of English insert an /r/ to avoid hiatus after non-high word-final (or occasionally morpheme-final) vowels, although prescriptive guides for Received Pronunciation
discourage this.
of a final vowel, occasionally prodelision (elision of initial vowel) and synizesis
(pronunciation of two vowels as one without change in writing).
, most instances of hiatus are avoided through the process of sandhi
.
, French
, and English the second of two vowels in hiatus is marked with a diaeresis (or "tréma"). Examples in English include coöperate, daïs and reëlect but over the last century its use in such words has been dropped or replaced by the use of a hyphen except in a very few publications, notably The New Yorker
. It is, however, still common in loanwords such as naïve and Noël.
This convention goes back to the Old Irish scribal tradition (though it is more consistently applied in Scottish Gaelic), e.g. lathe (> latha). However, hiatus in Old Irish was usually simply implied in certain vowel digraphs, e.g. óe (> adha), ua (> ogha).
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, hiatus (haɪˈeɪtəs; hɪˈaːtʊs "gaping") or diaeresis (daɪˈɛrɨsɨs or daɪˈɪərɨsɨs, from Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
diaíresis "division") refers to two vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
sounds occurring in adjacent syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s, with no intervening consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
.
The English words hiatus and diaeresis themselves contain a hiatus between the first and second syllables.
Preference
Some languages do not have diphthongs, except optionally in rapid speech, or have a limited number of diphthongs but also numerous vowel sequences which cannot form diphthongs and thus appear in hiatus. This is the case of JapaneseJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
such as Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
and Zulu
Zulu language
Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
, and Polynesian languages
Polynesian languages
The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Polynesians share many cultural traits...
such as Hawaiian
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
and Maori
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
. Extreme examples are Japanese aoi 'blue/green', Swahili eua 'to purify', and Hawaiian aea 'to rise up', all of which are three syllables.
Avoidance
Many languages disallow or restrict hiatus, avoiding it either by deleting or assimilating the vowel, or by adding an extra consonant.Epenthesis
A glottal stopGlottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
or a glide
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
may be added (epenthesis
Epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
) between vowels to prevent hiatus.
Intrusive R
Some non-rhoticRhotic and non-rhotic accents
English pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: a rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not...
dialects of English insert an /r/ to avoid hiatus after non-high word-final (or occasionally morpheme-final) vowels, although prescriptive guides for Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
discourage this.
Contraction
In Greek and Latin poetry, hiatus is generally avoided, though it does occur in many authors under certain rules with varying degrees of poetic licence. Hiatus may be avoided by elisionElision
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
of a final vowel, occasionally prodelision (elision of initial vowel) and synizesis
Synizesis
Synizesis is a sound change in which two originally syllabic vowels are pronounced as a single syllable without change in writing. In Latin and Greek, this was often to preserve meter, but similar changes occur naturally in languages....
(pronunciation of two vowels as one without change in writing).
Sandhi
In SanskritSanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, most instances of hiatus are avoided through the process of sandhi
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
.
Diaeresis
In DutchDutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and English the second of two vowels in hiatus is marked with a diaeresis (or "tréma"). Examples in English include coöperate, daïs and reëlect but over the last century its use in such words has been dropped or replaced by the use of a hyphen except in a very few publications, notably The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
. It is, however, still common in loanwords such as naïve and Noël.
Other ways
In Scottish Gaelic, hiatus is written using a number of digraphs: bh, dh, gh, mh, th. Some examples include:- abhainn "river" a.ɪɲ
- adha "liver" ɤ.ə
- ogha "nephew" o.ə
- cumha "condition" kʰũ.ə
- latha "day" lˠ̪a.ə
This convention goes back to the Old Irish scribal tradition (though it is more consistently applied in Scottish Gaelic), e.g. lathe (> latha). However, hiatus in Old Irish was usually simply implied in certain vowel digraphs, e.g. óe (> adha), ua (> ogha).
See also
- DiphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
- Linking and intrusive R
- Vowel cluster
- Words without consonantsWords without consonantsMost languages of the world allow syllables without consonants, and monosyllabic words may therefore consist of a single vowel. Examples in English are a, O, I, eye . A smaller number of languages allow sequences of such syllables, and thus may have polysyllabic words without consonants...
– extreme examples of hiatus - Movable nu