Hiatus

Hiatus refers to a break in a vocalic sequence whereby each vowel belongs to a different syllable. For instance, the word hiatus [haɪ.e.təs] exhibits such a phenomenon where the " . " marks the syllable break between the diphthong [aɪ] and the monophthong [e].

Examples from the Barra dialect of Gaelic are presented below (from Clements 1986):

• [N'i.an] bird
• [bi.əɣ] let (him) be
• [ʀu.əɣ] flush in the face
• [du.an] hook

External Links

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• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus_(linguistics)