hiatus [Lat. ‘an opening, crevice’]

Auditorily perceivable distribution of two consecutive (heterosyllabic) monophthongs over two syllables. For example, the two heterosyllabic monophthongs in Ital. ['mjε:i1] ‘mine’ vs the diphthong [ε:ĭ] in the competing [mjε:ĭ] or in Eng. [hay'ĕtəs] hiatus. Hiatus can also occur between words in a sentence (the egg). In English, the insertion of a semivowel1 may be introduced to eliminate hiatus or, in some dialects the insertion of r: Edna-r-interjected. Hiatus bridging can also occur through contraction, crasis, liaison, and synaeresis.