Apocope

Apocope

In phonology, apocope (pron-en|əˈpɒkəpi, from the Greek "apokoptein" "cutting off", from "apo-" "away from" and "koptein" "to cut") is the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.

Historical sound change

In historical phonetics, the term "apocope" is often (but not always) limited to the loss of an unstressed vowel.

Loss of an unstressed vowel (with nasal)

*Vulgar Latin "pan [em] " > Spanish "pan" ("bread")
*Vulgar Latin "lup [um] " > French "loup" ("wolf")
*Latin "strat [am] " > English "street"

Loss of other sounds

*Latin "illu [d] " > Spanish "ello"

Case marker

In the Estonian language and Sami language, apocopes help explain the forms of grammatical cases. For example, a nominative is described as having apocope of the final vowel, while the genitive does not. Historicaly, however, the genitive case marker has also undergone apocope: so "linn" ("a city") vs. "linna" ("of a city"), is derived from "linna" and "linnan", respectively. In the genitive form, final /n/, while being deleted, blocked the loss of /a/.

Grammatical rule

Some languages have apocopations internalized as mandatory forms. In Spanish, for example, many adjectives that come before the noun lose the final vowel when they precede a noun in the masculine singular form. The word "grande" ("big"/"great") becomes "gran". In these cases, one would say "gran aventura" ("great adventure") rather than "grande aventura".

Poetic device

*German "ich gebe" > poetic "ich geb"' ("I give")

Informal speech

Various sorts of informal abbreviations might be classed as apocope:
*English "photograph" > "photo"
*French "réactionnaire" > "réac" "reactionary"
*English "animation" > Japanese "anime-shon" > "anime"
*English "synchronization" > "sync"
*English "lotion" > "lo"
*English "Alexander" > "Alex" and so on with other diminutives

For a list of similar apocopations in the English language, see List of English apocopations.These processes are also linguistically subsumed under a process called truncation.

ee also

* Abbreviation
* Acronym
* Apheresis
* contraction
* Elision
* Initialism
* Syncope

References

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

External links

* [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-apo1.htm World Wide Words: Apocope]


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  • apocope — [ apɔkɔp ] n. f. • 1521; lat. gramm. d o. gr. apocopa ♦ Ling. Chute d un phonème, d une ou plusieurs syllabes à la fin d un mot (opposé à aphérèse).⇒ troncation. On dit « télé » pour « télévision », « mat » pour « matin » par apocope. Adj.… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • apocopé — apocope [ apɔkɔp ] n. f. • 1521; lat. gramm. d o. gr. apocopa ♦ Ling. Chute d un phonème, d une ou plusieurs syllabes à la fin d un mot (opposé à aphérèse).⇒ troncation. On dit « télé » pour « télévision », « mat » pour « matin » par apocope. Adj …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Apócope — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda En gramática, una apócope (del griego apokopé < apokopto, cortar ) es un metaplasmo donde se produce la pérdida o desaparición de uno o varios fonemas o sílabas al final de algunas palabras (cuando la pérdida se… …   Wikipedia Español

  • apocopé — apocopé, ée (a po ko pé, pée) adj. Terme de grammaire. Qui a subi une apocope. Mots apocopés …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • apocope — APOCOPE. s. f. Figure de Grammaire, par laquelle on retranche quelque chose à la fin d un mot. Negotî, pour Negotii, est une Apocope …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française 1798

  • apocope — /a pɔkope/ s.f. [dal lat. tardo apocŏpe, gr. apokopḗ troncamento ]. (ling.) [caduta di uno o più fonemi al termine d una parola] ▶◀ troncamento …   Enciclopedia Italiana

  • apócope — (Del lat. apocŏpe, y este del gr. ἀποκοπή, de ἀποκόπτειν, cortar). f. Gram. Supresión de algún sonido al fin de un vocablo; p. ej., en primer por primero. Era figura de dicción según la preceptiva tradicional …   Diccionario de la lengua española

  • Apocope — A*poc o*pe, n. [L., fr. Gr. ? a cutting off, fr. ? to cut off; ? from + ? to cut.] 1. The cutting off, or omission, of the last letter, syllable, or part of a word. [1913 Webster] 2. (Med.) A cutting off; abscission. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • apocope —    apòcope    (s.f.) Soppressione di uno o più elementi alla fine di una parola. L a­pocope è un metaplasmo per soppressione. Può essere chiamata anche troncamento …   Dizionario di retorica par stefano arduini & matteo damiani

  • apócope — s. f. 1. Supressão de letra ou sílaba no final de uma palavra (ex.: mármor por mármore). 2.  [Cirurgia] Fratura ou cortadura com perda de substância …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • apócope — sustantivo femenino 1. Área: gramática Supresión de uno o más fonemas al final de una palabra …   Diccionario Salamanca de la Lengua Española

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