Apocope Explained

In phonology, apocope is the loss (elision) of a word-final vowel. In a broader sense, the term can refer to the loss of any final sound (including consonants) from a word.^[1]

Academic linguists term the resultant word-form (following the operation of apocope) an .

Etymology

Apocope comes from the Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀποκοπή from Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀποκόπτειν "cutting off", from Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀπο- "away from" and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κόπτειν "to cut".

Historical sound change

In historical linguistics, apocope is often the loss of an unstressed vowel.

Loss of an unstressed vowel or vowel and nasal

• Latin Latin: mare → Portuguese Portuguese: mar (sea)
• Vulgar Latin Latin: panem → Spanish Spanish; Castilian: pan (bread)
• Vulgar Latin Latin: lupum → French French: loup (wolf)
• Proto-Germanic → Old, Middle, and Modern English land
• Old English → Modern English love (noun)
• Old English → Modern English love (verb)
• 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 (village) is rendered in southern Māori as kaik. A similar feature is seen in the Gallo-Italic languages.

Loss of other sounds

• Non-rhotic English accents, including British Received Pronunciation, suppress the final r in each syllable (except when it is followed by a vowel). (In most accents, the suppressed r lengthens or modifies the preceding vowel.)
• French pronunciation suppresses the final consonant of most words (but it is normally pronounced as a liaison at the beginning of the following word in the sentence if the latter word begins with a vowel or with an unaspirated 'h').

Case marker

In Estonian and the Sami languages, apocopes explain the forms of grammatical cases. For example, a nominative is described as having apocope of the final vowel, but the genitive does not have it. Throughout its history, however, the genitive case marker has also undergone apocope: Estonian Estonian: linn ("a city") and Estonian: linna ("of a city") are derived from Estonian: linna and Estonian: linnan respectively, as can still be seen in the corresponding Finnish word.

In the genitive form, the final pronounced as //n//, while it was being deleted, blocked the loss of pronounced as //a//. In Colloquial Finnish, the final vowel is sometimes omitted from case markers.

Grammatical rule

Some languages have apocopations that are internalized as mandatory forms. In Spanish and Italian, for example, some adjectives that come before the noun lose the final vowel or syllable if they precede a noun (mainly) in the masculine singular form. In Spanish, some adverbs and cardinal and ordinal numbers have apocopations as well.

• Adjectives
  • Spanish; Castilian: grande ("big, great") → Spanish; Castilian: gran → Spanish; Castilian: gran mujer (feminine) ("great woman". However, if the adjective follows the noun, the final syllable remains, but the meaning may also change: Spanish; Castilian: mujer grande, meaning "large woman")
  • Spanish; Castilian: bueno ("good") → Spanish; Castilian: buen → Spanish; Castilian: buen hombre (masculine) ("good man"; the final vowel remains in Spanish; Castilian: hombre bueno, with no accompanying change in meaning)
• Adverbs
  • Spanish; Castilian: tanto ("so much") → Spanish; Castilian: tan ("so") → Spanish; Castilian: tan hermoso ("so beautiful")
• Cardinal numbers
  • Spanish; Castilian: uno ("one, a, an") → Spanish; Castilian: un → Spanish; Castilian: un niño ("a child")
  • Spanish; Castilian: ciento ("hundred") → Spanish; Castilian: cien → Spanish; Castilian: Cien años de soledad ("One hundred years of solitude")
• Ordinal numbers
  • Spanish; Castilian: primero ("first") → Spanish; Castilian: primer → Spanish; Castilian: primer premio ("first prize")
  • Spanish; Castilian: tercero ("third") → Spanish; Castilian: tercer → Spanish; Castilian: tercer lugar ("third place")
  • Spanish; Castilian: postrero ("final") → Spanish; Castilian: postrer → Spanish; Castilian: postrer día ("final day")

See also

• Abbreviation
• Acronym and initialism
• Apheresis (linguistics)
• Clipping (morphology)
• Contraction (grammar)
• Elision
• Syncope (phonetics)

References

• Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.

External links

• World Wide Words: Apocope

Notes and References

1. Book: Campbell, Lyle. Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. 2007 . 978-0-7486-3019-6. 13.