Apheresis (linguistics)
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In phonetics, apheresis (/əˈfɛrᵻsɪs, əˈfɪərᵻsɪs/; British English: aphaeresis) is the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel, thus producing a new form called an aphetism (/ˈæfɪtɪzəm/).
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Etymology[edit]
Apheresis comes from Greek ἀφαίρεσις from ἀπό apo, "away" and αἱρέω haireo, "to take."
Apheresis as an historical sound change[edit]
In historical phonetics, the term "apheresis" is often but not always limited to the loss of an unstressed vowel. The Oxford English Dictionary gives this particular kind of apheresis the name aphesis (/ˈæfᵻsɪs/; from Greek ἄφεσις).
Loss of any sound[edit]
- English [k]nife → /ˈnaɪf/
- English because → informal ’cause
- Proto-Norse *[st]randa- (Swedish strand) > Finnish ranta "beach"
Loss of an unstressed vowel[edit]
- Greek epískopos > Vulgar Latin *ebiscopus > Old English bisceop 'bishop'
- English acute > cute
- Middle English Egipcien > gipcyan, gipsen 'Gypsy'[1]
- English alone > lone
- English amend > mend
- Old French e(s)vanisse > Middle English vanisshen 'vanish'
- Old French estable > English stable
- Old French estrange > English strange
- English esquire > squire
Apheresis as a poetic device[edit]
- English it is > poetic 'tis
- English upon > 'pon
Apheresis in informal speech[edit]
No good examples provided
See also[edit]
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Look up apheresis or aphaeresis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- Crowley, Terry (1997). An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.
