Apocope


In phonology, apocope is the omission or loss of a sound or sounds at the end of a word. While it most commonly refers to the loss of a final vowel, it can also describe the deletion of final consonants or even entire syllables.
For instance, in much spoken English, the t in the word don't is lost in the phrase I don't know, leading to the written representation I dunno.
The resulting word form after apocope has occurred is called an apocopation.

Etymology

Apocope comes from the Greek ἀποκοπή from ἀποκόπτειν 'cutting off', from ἀπο- 'away from' and κόπτειν 'to cut'.

Historical sound change

In historical linguistics, the term apocope is often used to refer to the systemic loss of final unstressed vowels and/or nasal consonants as part of a regular sound-change. This kind of apocope often entails change to or loss of inflexional endings.

Examples of the loss of an unstressed vowel and/or nasal consonant

Some languages have apocopations that are internalized as mandatory forms. In Spanish, for example, some adjectives that come before the noun lose the final vowel or syllable if they precede a noun in the masculine singular form. In Spanish, some adverbs and cardinal and ordinal numbers have apocopations as well.
  • Adjectives
  • * grande → gran → gran mujer
  • * bueno → buen → buen hombre
  • Adverbs
  • * tanto → tan → tan hermoso
  • Cardinal numbers
  • * uno → un → un niño
  • * ciento → cien → Cien años de soledad
  • Ordinal numbers
  • * primero → primer → primer premio
  • * segundo → segund → según → El evangelio según
  • * tercero → tercer → tercer lugar
  • * postrero → postrer → postrer día

    Economy of expression

Apocope can also refer to the shortening of words for economy. This is common in nicknames, such as William → Will or Margery → Marge, but occurs in other words, such as fanatic → fan and laboratory → lab.