v. [f. as prec. + -IZE.] trans. To turn (a vowel) into a consonant (e.g., u into w); to make consonantal. So Consonantization, making into a consonant.
1877. Sweet, Phonetics, 9. The French (w) is narrow, the English wide, the former being consonantized (u), the latter (u).
1879. H. Nicol, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), IX. 632/1. French … always rejecting, absorbing, or consonantizing the vowel of the last syllable but one, if unaccented.
