Spanish, Portuguese and Italian use synalepha, which is important in counting syllables in poetry. An example is in this
hendecasyllable (11-syllable line) by
Garcilaso de la Vega: :
Los cabellos que al oro oscurecían. :: The hair that endarkened the gold. The words
que and
al form one syllable in counting them because of synalepha. The same thing happens with
-ro and
os- and so the line has eleven syllables (syllable boundaries are shown by a
dot): :
Los·ca·be·llos·queal·o·roos·cu·re·cí·an. == See also ==