Meaning of anaphonesis | Babel Free

Definitions

The raising of /e/, /o/ to /i/, /u/ before certain consonantal environments, mainly [ŋ] and /ʎ/, occurring originally in some Tuscan dialects, and thus in Standard Italian.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Forms without anaphonesis (i.e. forms like conseglio, someglio, ponto, onghia) surround Florence on all sides. The loss of i in descending diphthongs (preite becoming prete) takes place about half-way through the century.”

“As far as anaphonesis of i is concerned, the Florentine form is introduced in 'vermeglo' > 'vermiglio' (C), but there is no change to the tonic e of 'strense', or to the pretonic e of 'vencendo' (both in N).”

“The absence of anaphonesis in some parole bandiera […] was clearly used in order to identify the origin of the speakers: it is said that in the sixteenth century, during the Guerra di Siena (‘war of Siena’), the inhabitants of Siena were identified and consequently slain by Florentine troops on the basis of the fact that they called a particular fish tenca ‘tench’ rather than tinca.³”

CEFR level