Crasis
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Crasis is the merger of a vowel or diphthong at the end of a word with a vowel or diphthong at the start of the following word. It occurs, for example, in Ancient Greek and in Portuguese.
In Portuguese, the most frequent example is the contraction of the preposition a (required by several verbs; can be equivalent, for instance, of "to" or "at") with the feminine definite article a, which is marked in writing with a grave accent, à. For example, instead of Vou a a praia (I am going to the beach), one says Vou à praia. Contractions of the preposition a with the demonstrative pronouns are also standard: e.g. with aquele and aquela (that one), aqueles and aquelas (those) and aquilo (that), producing àquele, àquela, àqueles, àquelas and àquilo. The grave accent does not change the pronunciation of a in Brazilian Portuguese, but in standard European Portuguese a and à are pronounced differently. Sometimes, ò is used to denote the crasis of a with o, in nonstandard speech. For example, colloquially the preposition p(a)ra can contract with the masculine definite article o, producing prò.
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