a. [f. VOCAL a. + -IC. Cf. F. vocalique.]
1. Rich in vowels; composed mainly or entirely of vowels.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxii. The Gaelic language being uncommonly vocalic is well adapted for sudden and extemporaneous poetry.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. xvi. I. 473. Its richness, its flexibility and capacity of new combinations, its vocalic abundance and metrical pronunciation.
1859. Patteson, in Miss Yonge, Life (1874), I. 439. Their language is all vocalic and so easy to put into writing.
b. Characterized by a vowel or vowels.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., ii. 92. The varying vocalic forms of the Imperfect [tense].
1887. A. S. Cook, Sievers’ O. E. Gram., 129. Vocalic or strong declension.
2. Consisting of a vowel or vowels; of the nature of a vowel.
1852. in Jrnl. Ethnol. Soc. (1854), III. 264. The series of vocalic and consonantal sounds.
1868. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. 25. The sing. accusative ending in a vowel or a vocalic consonant.
1874. A. B. Davidson, Introd. Hebr. Gram., 101. Sometimes the vocalic termination is written with yod.
1891. A. L. Mayhew, O. E. Phonology, 19. In final unaccented syllables e was developed from a vocalic liquid or nasal.
3. Of or pertaining to, affecting or concerning, a vowel or vowels.
1861. Graham, Eng. Word-Bk., Introd. In words of Gothic origin we more frequently find that internal vocalic and consonantal changes are employed to produce the new word.
1876. Douse, Grimm’s Law, 171. Of the corresponding vocalic affections, the palatal … is as much European as Aryan.
1876. Blackie, Lang. & Lit. Scot. Highl., i. 63. No man with an ear will deny vocalic depth … to the following lines.
