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Vowel sandhi process

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Crasis (/ˈkreɪsɪs/;^[1] from the Greekκρᾶσις,lit. 'mixing' or'blending')[2] is a type ofcontraction in which two vowels or diphthongsmerge into one new vowel ordiphthong, making one word out of two (univerbation). Crasis occurs in many languages, includingFrench,Italian,Portuguese, andSpanish; it was first described inAncient Greek.

In some cases, as in the French examples, crasis involves the grammaticalization of two individual lexical items into one. However, in other cases, like in the Greek examples, crasis is the orthographic representation of theencliticization and thevowel reduction of one grammatical form with another. The difference between them is that the Greek examples involve twogrammatical words and a singlephonological word, but the French examples involve a single phonological word and grammatical word.

Greek

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In bothAncient andModern Greek, crasis merges a small word and long word that are closely connected in meaning.^{[n 1]}

In Ancient Greek, acoronis (κορωνίςkorōnís "curved"; pluralκορωνίδεςkorōnídes) marks the vowel from crasis. In ancient times, it was an apostrophe placed after the vowel (τα᾽μά), but it is now written over the vowel (τἀμά) and is identical tosmooth breathing inUnicode. (For instance,τἀμά uses the characterU+1F00 ἀGREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI;psili means smooth breathing.) Unlike a coronis, smooth breathing never occurs on a vowel in the middle of a word although it occurs in adoubled rho:πύῤῥοςpyrrhos.

Thearticle undergoes crasis with nouns and adjectives that start with a vowel:

τὰ ἐμά →τᾱ̓μά "my (affairs)"
τὸ ἐναντίον →τοὐναντίον "on the contrary"
τὸ αὐτό →ταὐτό "the same"
τὰ αὐτά →ταὐτά (plural of the previous example)

καί undergoes crasis with the first-person singular pronoun and produces a long vowel:

καὶ ἐγώ →κᾱ̓γώ "and I", "I too"
καὶ ἐμοί →κᾱ̓μοί "and to me"

In the modernmonotonic orthography, the coronis is not written.

Italian

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In Italian, crasis occurs between the prepositionsa,da,di,in,con,su,per and the singular masculine definite articleil or in fewer cases with the plural masculine definite articlesi andgli.

a il →al
da il →dal
di il →del
in il →nel
con il →col
con i →coi
su il →sul
per il →pel (archaic)
per i →pei (archaic)
per gli →pegli (archaic)

French

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In French, the contractions of determiners are often the results of a vocalisation and a crasis:

de le →du,de les →des
à le →au,à les →aux
en les →ès (archaic)

In colloquial Québécois French, crasis extends to form further words.

à + la → à
sur + la → s'a
sur + les → s'es
il + est → yé

Portuguese

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The most frequently-observed crasis is now the contraction of the prepositiona ("to" or "at") with the feminine singular definite articlea ("the"), indicated in writing with agrave accent or the masculine singular definite articleo (also "the"). For example, instead of*Vou a a praia ("I goto the beach"), one saysVou à praia ("I goto-the beach"). The contraction turns theclitica into the stressed wordà. Meanwhile, a person going to a bank, a supermarket or a marketplace would say respectivelyVou ao banco,Vou ao supermercado orVou à feira.

Crasis also occurs between the prepositiona anddemonstrative such as when the preposition precedesaquele(s),aquela(s) (meaning "that", "those", in different genders), which contract toàquele(s),àquela(s). The accent marks asecondary stress in Portuguese.

In addition, the crasisà is pronouncedlower as/a/ than the article or prepositiona, as/ɐ/, in the examples in standardEuropean Portuguese, but the qualitative distinction is not made by most speakers inBrazilian Portuguese (some dialects, likeRio de Janeiro'sfluminense, are exceptions and make the distinction).

Crasis is very important since it can change the meaning of a sentence:

Exposta,a polícia - The police is exposed
Expostaà polícia - She is exposed to the police
Glória,a rainha - Glória the queen (In this case, "Glória" is a proper noun).
Glóriaà rainha - Glory to the queen (It can be spoken in the imperative with a different intonation. Glory to the Queen can mean that people are "ordering" that "Glory", a proper noun, be the queen.)
Dêa mulher - Give the woman
Dêà mulher - Give to the woman

These rules determine whether crasis always applies or whether one may use the contractionà (with an accent) instead of the prepositiona (without an accent):

Replace the prepositiona by another preposition, asem ("in") orpara ("to"). If after replacement, the definite articlea ("the") is still possible, crasis applies:

Pedro viajou à Região Nordeste: with a grave accent because it equivalent to "Pedro traveled 'to the'Northeast Region". Here,para a Região Nordeste could also be used.
O autor dedicou o livro a sua esposa: without a grave accent in Brazilian Portuguese because it is equivalent to "The author dedicated the book 'to' his wife". A consistent use, according to the rules inBrazil would not allowpara a sua esposa to be used instead. In European Portuguese, the rules are different, and it isO autor dedicou o livro à sua esposa, but in English, both sentences have the same meaning.

If the nominal complement is changed after "a" from a feminine noun to a masculine noun, and it is now necessary to use 'ao' as used naturally by native speakers, crasis applies:

Prestou relevantes serviços à comunidade,He/she paid outstanding services to the community: with a grave accent because if the object is changed to a masculine noun ("Prestou relevantes serviços ao povo"He/she paid outstanding services to the people), "ao" ("to [masculine] the") is now used.
"Chegarei daqui a uma hora"I will arrive in an hour: without crasis because when the feminine noun is changed to a masculine noun ("Chegarei daqui a um minuto"I will arrive in a minute), there is no "ao" (as "um/uma", indefinite articles, appear instead of "o/a").

The grave accent is never used before masculine words (nouns, pronouns, etc.); verbs; personal pronouns; numerals, plural nouns without the use of the feminine plural definite articleas ("the"); city names that do not use a feminine article; the wordcasa ("house") if it has the meaning of one's own home; the wordterra ("earth") when it has the meaning of soil; and indefinite, personal, relative or demonstrative pronouns (except the third person andaquele(s) oraquela(s)); between identical nouns such asdia a dia "day by day", "everyday", "daily life",gota a gota "dropwise", "drip", andcara a cara "face to face"; and after prepositions. Here are some exceptions:

É preciso declarar guerra à guerra! (It is necessary to declare war on war!)
É preciso dar mais vida à vida. (It is necessary to give more life to life.)

Crasis also occurs between the prepositionsde,em andpor and the definite articles.

de o →do
de a →da
de os →dos
de as →das
em o →no
em a →na
em os →nos
em as →nas
por o →pelo
por a →pela
por os →pelos
por as →pelas

Optional crasis

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The grave accent is optional in the following cases:

Before a female's first name
Refiro-me [à/a] Fernanda. (I am referring to Fernanda.)
Before a feminine possessive pronoun
Dirija-se [à/a] sua fazenda. (Go to your [own] farm.)
After the prepositionaté
Dirija-se até [à/a] porta. (Go by that door.)
Eu fui até [à/a] França de carro. (I traveled toFrance by car.)

Spanish

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In Spanish, crasis occurs between the prepositionsa orde and the masculine definite articleel.

a el →al
de el →del

Notes and references

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Notes

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^Note thatcrasis in English usually refers to the merging of words, but the sense of the word in the original Greek was more general^[1] and referred to most changes related to vowel contraction, includingsynaeresis.