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
- Latin mare → Portuguese mar
- Latin pānem → Spanish pan
- Latin lupum → French loup
- Latin cīvitātem → Italian città
- Proto-Germanic → Old, Middle, and Modern English land
- Old English → Modern English love
- Old English → Modern English love
- The loss of a final unstressed vowel is a feature of southern dialects of Māori in comparison to standard Māori, for example the term kainga is rendered in southern Māori as kaik. A similar feature is seen in the Gallo-Italic languages.
- Proto-Finnic *litna → Estonian linn
- Proto-Finnic *litnan → Estonian linna
- Colloquial Finnish suomeksi → ''suomeks''
Examples of the loss of other sounds
- Non-rhotic English accents, including British Received Pronunciation, suppress the final r in each syllable.
- French pronunciation suppresses the final consonant of most words.
Grammatical rule
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