Consonantify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transform or modify a word or sound by adding or emphasizing consonant sounds; to make something more consonant-like in pronunciation or structure; to increase the presence of consonantal elements in speech or writing
2. The act of turning vowels or softer sounds into consonants within speech or text; to enhance or reinforce the consonantal nature of a phonetic segment; the process of altering a sound pattern to include more consonants
3. Modifying verbal or written language so that consonants predominate; converting vowel-heavy expressions into consonant-focused forms; adjusting articulation to feature consonant sounds prominently

Etymology: "Consonantify" is a plain formation: "consonant" with the verb-forming suffix "-ify," meaning "to make into." The "-ify" ending comes through Old French "-ifier" from Latin "-ificare," a suffix used to build verbs from the sense of making or causing something to be. "Consonant" itself comes from Latin "consonans," literally "sounding together," from "consonare," formed from "con-" ("together") and "sonare" ("to sound"). The word is a technical coinage, and its meaning in the given definition runs opposite to its base. A consonant is a sound produced with some obstruction of the airstream, while a vowel is open, so "consonantify" in the sense of turning vowels into consonants is the natural reading. The definition you supplied, "change vowel sounds," describes a broader process, so the word's usage should be checked against a specific linguistic source before relying on that gloss.

Synonyms: consonantize, consonantize, consonantify