[f. CONSONANT sb. + -ISM. In mod.F. consonnantisme.] Use of consonants; the system of consonants belonging to a particular language, or their special character; a consonant formation.
1873. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2), 132. The sound of the w may be described as a consonantism resulting from the collision of u with another vocalic sound.
1888. Athenæum, 25 Feb., 240/1. To shake the confidence of scholars in the primitiveness of the Sanskrit consonantism.
