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In phonology
Phonology

Phonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system....
, apocope (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.

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



he Estonian language
Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various ?migr? communities....
 and Sami language, apocopes help explain the forms of grammatical cases.






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In phonology
Phonology

Phonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system....
, apocope (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")


Loss of other sounds

  • Latin illu[d] > Spanish ello


Case marker

In the Estonian language
Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various ?migr? communities....
 and Sami language, apocopes help explain the forms of grammatical cases. For example, a nominative is described as having apocope of the final vowel, whereas the genitive does not. Throughout its history, however, the genitive case marker has also undergone apocope: 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
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, for example, some adjective
Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
s that come before the noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
 lose the final vowel when they precede a noun in the masculine
Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
 singular
Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
 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")
  • English eternal > poetic eterne


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
List of English apocopations

This is a list of common Apocope in the English language....
. These processes are also linguistically subsumed under a process called truncation.

See also

  • Abbreviation
    Abbreviation

    An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase....
  • Acronym
  • Apheresis
  • contraction
    Contraction (grammar)

    In current English usage, contraction is shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters.In traditional grammar, contraction can denote the formation of a new word from one word or a group of words, for example, by elision....
  • Elision
    Elision

    Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect....
  • Initialism
  • Syncope
    Syncope

    In phonology, syncope is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel....


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