Meanings
- uncountableItalian phonologyThe 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.
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).
1986, Brian Richardson, “An Editor of Vernacular Texts in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Lucio Paolo Rosello”, in Anna Laura Lepschy, John F. Took, Dennis E. Rhodes, editors, Book Production and Letters in the Western European Renaissance: Essays in Honour of Conor Fahy, London: Modern Humanities Research Association, page 2562 more 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.
1966, Bruno Miglorini, edited by T. Gwynfor Griffith, The Italian Language, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 70The 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
2018 November 15, Silvia Calamai, “The phonetics of Italian anaphonesis: Between production and perception”, in Juana Gil, Mark Gibson, editors, Romance Phonetics and Phonology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 52
Origin
Cite this entry
anaphonesis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anaphonesis
“anaphonesis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anaphonesis. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anaphonesis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anaphonesis.
Source: anaphonesis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.