Consonyms
Consonyms are words that share the same consonants within a word in exactly the same order.
For instance, the words:
- Last
- Lest
- Least
- List
- Lost
- Lust
In this case, the consonants form what is known as a consonym by their shared consonants in order. This is also known as a consonantal root.
This phenomenon was first observed in ancient semitic roots and the rich associations they engender. The Hebrew alphabet, for instance, is an entire set of consonants known as an abjad. It does not include any vowels as English does.
These are ordered within their lexicons as biconsonantal, triconsonantal or quadrilateral consonants producing consistent themes of defined consonant roots.
It was once thought that this underlying phenomenon related solely to Semitic languages but it now appears that there are universal connections over a wide range of transliterated languages.
For instance, the consonantal root order for HL is shown to be consistent over multiple languages. In these cases, they too are consonyms of the same word.
- Hello (English)
- Hallo (German)
- Hallå (Swedish)
- Hola (Spanish)
- Halò (Scottish Gaelic)
- Halló (Icelandic)
- Hula (Traditional welcome in Tahiti)
Noticeably, the vowels do not change the meaning of these words in any way. They solely alter the pronunciation of them individually.
References
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