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Ahead of some suffixes like -ra and -la with short vowels, there is more pressure to separate the suffix from the root, and so the -y-appears to intervene. — Prakrit sā(y)ara > Old Hindi sāyara "sea" [14] [15] The sequence a + a (where short a is not part of a diphthong) generally becomes ai first, and can also contract even further to ē.
A limited number of words in Japanese use epenthetic consonants to separate vowels. An example is the word harusame ( 春雨 （はるさめ） , 'spring rain') , a compound of haru and ame in which an /s/ is added to separate the final /u/ of haru and the initial /a/ of ame .
OE y and ý (short and long high front rounded vowels) fell together with i and í via a simple phonetic unrounding: OE hypp, cynn, cyssan, brycg, fyllan, fýr, mýs, brýd became modern hip, kin, kiss, bridge, fill, fire, mice, bride. There is no way to tell by inspection whether a modern /i ay/ goes back to a rounded or an unrounded vowel.
Not all suffixes obey vowel harmony perfectly. In the suffix -(i)yor, the o is invariant, while the i changes according to the preceding vowel; for example sönüyor – "he/she/it fades". Likewise, in the suffix -(y)ken, the e is invariant: Roma'dayken – "When in Rome"; and so is the i in the suffix -(y)ebil: inanılabilir – "credible".
The formation of the causative is highly variable, and may involve replacement of the stem final vowel with short or long i or ī, palatalization of the final consonant of the stem (whereby c/z, t, tz become x, ch, ch, respectively), the loss of a stem final vowel, the addition of the suffix -l-, a number of minor strategies, or a combination ...
In Greek synaeresis, two vowels merge to form a long version of one of the two vowels (e.g. e + a → ā), a diphthong with a different main vowel (e.g. a + ei → āi), or a new vowel intermediate between the originals (e.g. a + o → ō). Contraction of e + o or o + e leads to ou, and e + e to ei, which are in this case spurious diphthongs.
In Homer, compounds beginning with ἐύ- (also spelled ἐΰ-, with a diaeresis or trema) frequently contain two separate vowels (diaeresis). In later Greek, the two vowels form a diphthong (synaeresis). The word comes from εὖ "well", [4] the adverbial use of the neuter accusative singular of the adjective ἐύς "good". [5]
The front rounded vowels /y yː ø øː œː/ existed in the southwest dialects of Middle English, which developed from the standard Late West Saxon dialect of Old English, but not in the standard Middle English dialect of London. The close vowels /y/ and /yː/ are direct descendants of the corresponding Old English vowels and were indicated as u .