a. and sb. [ad. mod.L. syllabicus (Priscian), ad. Gr. συλλαβικός, f. συλλαβή SYLLABLE sb. Cf. F. syllabique (1704 in Hatz.-Darm.), It. sillabico, Sp. silábico.]
A. adj.
1. Of, pertaining or relating to, a syllable or syllables.
1755. Johnson, Syllabick, relating to syllables.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., xxiii. (1819), I. 132. There are many passages … which, if you attend to the accentual and not to the syllabic quantity, may be scanned like hexameter verses.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., ii. 95. In the responses…, which are noted for various voices, this syllabic distinction is sufficiently attended to.
1852. Proc. Philol. Soc., V. 156. In English pronunciation syllabic quantity is … imperfectly marked.
1860. Adler, Prov. Poet., i. 6. Versification founded on a combination of the rhyme with the syllabic accent.
1892. Lounsbury, Stud. Chaucer, I. iii. 286. In his endeavors to impart to the line syllabic regularity.
b. Forming or constituting a syllable. Syllabic augment: see AUGMENT sb. 2.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The first [augment] call’d Syllabic, which is when the Word is increas’d by a Syllable.
1837. G. Phillips, Syriac Gram., 25. Whenever the noun in its primitive form receives a syllabic augment.
1888. Sweet, Engl. Sounds, § 21. A sound which can form a syllable by itself is called syllabic.… The distinction between syllabic and non-syllabic is generally parallel to that between vowel and consonant. But … ‘vowellike’ or ‘liquid’ voiced consonants … are often also syllabic…. Even voiceless consonants can be syllabic, as in pst, where the s is syllabically equivalent to a vowel. Ibid. (1908), Sounds of English, § 149. In such a word as little litl the second l is so much more syllabic than the preceding voiceless stop that it assumes syllabic function.
c. Denoting a syllable; consisting of signs denoting syllables.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., v. 104. Writing his language in syllabic signs.
1875. Renouf, Egypt. Gram., 1. All other Egyptian phonetic signs have syllabic values.
1884. W. Wright, Empire Hittites, 70. A syllabic writing evidently of immense antiquity.
2. a. Applied to singing, or a tune, in which each syllable is sung to one note (i.e., with no slurs or runs).
1789. Burney, Hist. Mus., III. 389. Nothing now but syllabic and unisonous psalmody was authorised in the Church.
1834. K. H. Digby, Mores Cath., V. iii. 75. That syllabic composition of song in Pindar’s style.
b. Pronounced syllable by syllable; uttered with distinct separation of syllables.
1890. Sara J. Duncan, Social Departure, xiii. 122. His English was careful, select, syllabic.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 64. ‘Scanning,’ ‘staccato,’ or ‘syllabic’ speech is one of the symptoms of [disseminate sclerosis].
3. Consisting of mere syllables or words; verbal. rare–1.
1850. P. Crook, War of Hats, 35. The mere syllabic air Of words in formal orisons bestowed.
B. sb. (elliptical use of the adj.)
1. A syllabic sign; a character denoting a syllable.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XI. 800/2. A determinative [attached to an ideographic sign] often indicates to the reader … this radical change in the use of the sign. In this case the sign is said to be employed as a syllabic.
1885. Athenæum, 4 April, 436/3. Eight syllabic signs … are verified by their close accordance of form with Cypriote syllabics.
2. A syllabic sound; a vocal sound capable by itself of forming a syllable, or constituting the essential element of a syllable.
1890. Sweet, Primer of Phonetics, § 150. Hence the ear learns to divide a breath-group into groups of vowels (or vowel-equivalents), each flanked by consonants (or consonant-equivalents)—or, in other words, into syllable-formers or syllabics, and non-syllabics, each of these groups constituting a syllable. Ibid. (1908), Sounds of English, § 149. The more sonorous a sound is, the more easily it assumes the function of a syllabic.
3. A syllabic utterance; a word or phrase pronounced syllable by syllable. nonce-use.
1893. T. B. Foreman, Trip to Spain, 30. A welcome relief to the hard syllabics, ‘Splendid!’ ‘Beautiful!’
