Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
, a
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
, or a whole
syllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for
euphonicPhonaesthetics is the claim or study of inherent pleasantness or beauty or unpleasantness of the sound of certain words and sentences. Poetry is considered euphonic, as is well-crafted literary prose...
effect.
In English, elision is often unintentional, giving a result that may in some cases be impressionistically described as "slurred" or "muted." Often, however, the elision is deliberate, as in the use of
contractionsA contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
.
In French, elision is mandatory in certain contexts, as in the clause C'est la vie (elided from *ce est la vie).
An example of deliberate elision occurs in Latin poetry as a
stylistic deviceIn literature and writing, Stylistic Elements are the use of any of a variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling to the literal or written.- Figurative language :...
. Under certain circumstances, such as one word ending in a vowel and the following word beginning in a vowel, the words may be elided together. Elision was a common device in the works of
CatullusGaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...
. For example, the opening line of Catullus 3 is: Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque, but would be read as Luget
o Veneres Cupidinesque.
A
synonymSynonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
for elision is syncope, though the latter term is most often associated with the elision of vowels between consonants (e.g., Latin tabula → Spanish tabla). Another form of elision is apheresis, which means elision at the beginning of a word (generally of an unstressed vowel).
Some
morphemeIn linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s take the form of elision. See
disfixA disfix is a subtractive morpheme, that is, a morpheme which manifests itself through elision . Thus it can be seen as a kind of "anti-affix"...
.
The opposite of elision is
epenthesisIn phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
, whereby sounds are inserted into a word to ease pronunciation.
A special form of elision called ecthlipsis is used in Latin poetry when a word ending in the letter "m" is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, e.g., "...et mutam nequiquam adloquerer cinerem." = "...et mutam nequiquadloquerer cinerem." - Catullus 101.
The omission of a word from a phrase or sentence is not elision but
ellipsisEllipsis is a series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the original text being quoted. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence...
or, more accurately,
elliptical constructionIn linguistics, ellipsis or elliptical construction refers to the omission from a clause of one or more words that would otherwise be required by the remaining elements.-Overview:...
.
Written representation
Even though the effort that it takes to pronounce a word does not hold any influence in writing, a word or phrase may be spelled the same as it is spoken, for example, in
poetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
or in the script for a
theatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
play, in order to
show the actual speech of a characterEye dialect is the use of non-standard spelling for speech to draw attention to pronunciation. The term was originally coined by George P. Krapp to refer to the literary technique of using non-standard spelling that implies a pronunciation of the given word that is actually standard, such as...
. It may also be used in an attempt to transcribe non-standard speech. Also, some kinds of elision (as well as other phonological devices) are commonly used in poetry in order to preserve a particular rhythm.
In some languages employing the
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, such as English, the omitted letters in a contraction are replaced by an
apostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
(e.g., isn't for is not). Greek, which uses its own alphabet, marks elision in the same way.
English
Examples of elision in English:
| comfortable: |
ˈkʌmfəɹtəbəl |
→ /ˈkʌmftəɹbəl/ (rhotic English), /ˈkʌmftəbəl/ (non-rhotic English) |
| fifth: |
/ˈfɪfθ/ |
→ /ˈfɪθ/ |
| him: |
/hɪm/ |
→ /ɪm/ |
| laboratory: |
/læˈbɔɹətɔɹi/ |
→ /ˈlæbɹətɔɹi/ (American English), /ˈləbɒɹətɹi/ (British English) |
| temperature: |
/ˈtɛmpəɹətʃəɹ/ |
→ /ˈtɛmpəɹtʃəɹ/, /ˈtɛmpɹətʃə/ |
| vegetable: |
/ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/ |
→ /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/, /ˈvɛtʃtəbəl/ |
French
Elision of unstressed vowels is common in the French language, and accepted as part of the standard pronunciation and grammar in numerous cases.
German
Nouns and adjectives that end with unstressed "el" or "er" have the "e" elided when they are declined or a suffix follows. ex. teuer becomes teure, teuren, etc., and Himmel + -isch becomes himmlisch.
The final "e" of a noun is also elided when another noun or suffix is concatenated onto it. ex. Strafe + Gesetzbuch becomes Strafgesetzbuch.
In both of the above cases the "e" represents a
schwaIn linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
.
Irish
Elision is found in the Ulster dialect of Irish, particularly in final position. Iontach, for example, while pronounced ['i:ntəx] in the Conamara dialect, is pronounced ['intə] in Ulster. n is also elided when it begins intervocalic consonant clusters. Anró is pronounced aró; muintir is pronounced muitir.
Japanese
Elision is extremely common in the pronunciation of the
Japanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. In general, a high vowel (/i/ or /u/) that appears in a low-pitched syllable between two voiceless consonants is devoiced, and often deleted outright. However, unlike French or English, Japanese does not often show elision in writing. The process is purely phonetic, and varies considerably depending on the dialect or level of formality. A few examples (slightly exaggerated; apostrophes added to indicate elision):
- Matsushita-san wa imasu ka? ("Is Mr. Matsushita in?")
- Pronounced: matsush'tasanwa imas'ka
- matsɯɕtasɑ̃wa imasːka
- roku, shichi, hachi ("six, seven, eight")
- Pronounced: rok', shich', hach'
- ɽokɯ̥ ɕitɕi̥ hatɕi̥
- Shitsurei shimasu ("Excuse me")
- Pronounced: sh'ts'reishimas'
- ɕi̥tsɯ̥ɽeː ɕimasː
Gender roles also influence elision in Japanese. It is considered masculine to elide, especially the final u of the polite verb forms (-masu, desu), whereas women are traditionally encouraged to do the opposite. However, excessive elision is generally viewed as basilectic, and inadequate elision is seen as overly fussy or old-fashioned. Some nonstandard dialects, such as Satsuma-ben, are known for their extensive elision.
Malayalam
Dropping of sounds in connected speech (as Elision) is very common in this south Indian language (of the state of Kerala).
Native Malayalam speakers are very much used to it.
Examples:
"entha" becomes "ntha"
"ippol" becomes "ippo"
Spanish
The change of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
into the Romance languages included a significant amount of elision, especially syncope (loss of medial vowels). In
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, for example, we have:
- tabla from Latin tabula
- isla from Latin insula (through *isula)
- alma from Latin anima (with dissimilation
In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word become less similar...
of -nm- to -lm-)
- hembra from Latin femina (with lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
of f- to h-, dissimilation of -mn- to -mr- and then epenthesisIn phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....
of -mr- to -mbr-'
In addition, speakers often employ
crasisCrasis is a type of contraction in which two vowels or diphthongs merge into one new vowel or diphthong — making one word out of two. Crasis occurs in Portuguese and Arabic as well as in Ancient Greek, where it was first described.-French:...
or elision between two words to avoid a
hiatusIn phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong....
caused by vowels – the choice of which to use depends upon whether or not the vowels are identical.
Tamil
TamilTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
has a set of rules for elision. They are categorised into classes based on the
phonemeIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
where elision occurs.
| Class name | Phoneme |
| Kutriyalukaram |
u |
| Kutriyalikaram |
i |
| Aiykaarakkurukkam |
ai |
| Oukaarakkurukkam |
au |
| Aaythakkurukkam |
the special character akh |
| Makarakkurukkam |
m |
Finnish
The consonant in the
partitive caseThe partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers....
ending -ta elides when surrounded by two short vowels except when the first of the two vowels involved is
paragogeParagoge , adj. paragogic , is the addition of a sound to the end of a word. Often, this is due to nativization. It is a type of epenthesis, most commonly vocalic epenthesis.-Diachronic paragoge:...
(added to the stem). Otherwise, it stays. For example, katto+ta → kattoa, ranta+ta → rantaa, but työ+tä → työtä (not a short vowel), mies+ta → miestä (consonant stem), jousi+ta → jousta (paragogic i on a consonant stem).
Welsh
Elision is a major feature of Welsh, found commonly in verb forms, as in the following examples:
- Ydych chi'n (chi yn) hoffi'r (hoffi yr) coffi? (Do you like the coffee?)
- Ble mae'r (mae yr) dre? (Where is the town?)
- Rydw i'n (i yn) darllen. (I am reading)
See also
- Apocope
In phonology, apocope 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:...
- Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
- Synalepha
A synalepha or synaloepha is the merging of two syllables into one, especially when it causes two words to be pronounced as one.The original meaning in Greek is more general than modern usage, and also includes coalescence of vowels within a word...
- Relaxed pronunciation
Relaxed pronunciation is a phenomenon that happens when the syllables of common words are slurred together...
- Contraction
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
- Crasis
Crasis is a type of contraction in which two vowels or diphthongs merge into one new vowel or diphthong — making one word out of two. Crasis occurs in Portuguese and Arabic as well as in Ancient Greek, where it was first described.-French:...
- Liaison
Liaison is the pronunciation of a latent word-final consonant immediately before a following vowel sound. In French, most written word-final consonants are no longer pronounced and are known as latent or mute...
- Elision in the French language
In French, elision refers to the suppression of a final unstressed vowel immediately before another word beginning with a vowel. The term also refers to the orthographic convention by which the deletion of a vowel is reflected in writing, and indicated with an apostrophe.- Written French :In...
- Lacuna
General references
- Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.
External links