In Italian linguistics, what is the term for the phonetic phenomenon where two adjacent vowel sounds within the same word are pronounced as distinct syllables rather than a diphthong (e.g., 'pa-u-ra')?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Hiatus (iato)
- Step 1: Hiatus occurs when two vowels meet without forming a diphthong, each retaining its distinct syllabic beat (as in pa-u-ra or po-e-ta). Answer: Hiatus (iato). Why not the others: Synaeresis contracts two vowels into one syllable, and apocope truncates the final sound of a word.
Practise more Italian Classics, Literary Movements, and Grammar.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed Maturità / Esame di Stato (Italy) mock tests.
More Italian Classics, Literary Movements, and Grammar questions
- In Italian literature, which 14th-century work by Giovanni Boccaccio contains 100 novellas told by ten young people fleeing the Black Death?
- In Italian literature, which Renaissance political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli argues that a ruler must combine the traits of the fox an…
- In Italian literature, which poetic metre is used by Ludovico Ariosto in Orlando Furioso and Torquato Tasso in Gerusalemme Liberata?
- In Italian literature, which 1827 historical novel by Alessandro Manzoni tells the story of two rural silk weavers, Renzo and Lucia, in 17th…
- In Italian literature, what philosophical concept defines Giacomo Leopardi's 'pessimismo cosmico' as formulated in his Operette Morali and C…
- In Italian literature, which pioneering Verismo novel by Giovanni Verga portrays the tragic downfall of a Sicilian fishing family in Aci Tre…