adv. [f. prec. + -LY2; see -ICALLY.] In a syllabic or syllabical manner.
1. † In syllables, in audible words, articulately (obs.); syllable by syllable, with distinct utterance of the syllables; as a separate syllable.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, X. xv. 381. Wherein [sc. in the mouths of Angels] Gods person would appeare, and speake syllabically in a mans voyce, unto us.
a. 1660. Hammond, Serm. Rom. i. 26, Wks. 1684, I. 657. The first voice of nature … which it uttered … when it was an infant in the World, and therefore perhaps … not so plainly, and syllabically, and distinctly, as could have been wished.
1811. Southey, in Q. Rev., Oct., 278. They first read the words syllabically.
1837. Hallam, Lit. Eur., I. I. viii. § 26. 433. It is necessary to presume that many terminations, now mute, were syllabically pronounced.
1862. Sala, Seven Sons, II. xi. 286. Tottenham—he pronounced the word very syllabically.
† 2. Syllable for syllable; word for word; hence, precisely, in every detail. Obs.
1654. Warren, Unbelievers, 55. The Scripture doth syllabically repeat these words.
1661. Gauden, Consid. Liturgy, 25. These and many like places,… though they do not literally and syllabically agree with the quotation, may sufficiently justifie that place … to be … a Divine Scriptural Truth.
1698. [R. Ferguson], View Eccles., 7. Scrupling, at certain Words and Phrases, which were not ρητως, or Literally, and Syllabically Canonical.
a. 1778. Toplady, Wks. (1828), III. 446. It is called St. Athanasius’s Creed; not because it was syllabically composed by him, but [etc.].
3. In relation to a syllable or syllables; by syllabic characters.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., ii. 95. Those parts or versicles which … are syllabically distinguished by notes of different musical duration.
1888. [see SYLLABIC A. 1 b].
1908. Westm. Gaz., 9 Dec., 10/3. Showing how Chinese sounds could be reproduced alphabetically or syllabically.
