Apocope

In phonology, apocope (əˈpɒkəpi) is the loss (elision) of a word-final vowel. In a broader sense, it can refer to the loss of any final sound (including consonants) from a word. Apocope comes from the Greek ἀποκοπή () from ἀποκόπτειν () "cutting off", from ἀπο- () "away from" and κόπτειν () "to cut". In historical linguistics, apocope is often the loss of an unstressed vowel. Latin mare → Portuguese mar (sea) Vulgar Latin panem → Spanish pan (bread) Vulgar Latin lupum → French loup (wolf) Proto-Germanic *landą → Old, Middle, and Modern English land Old English lufu → Modern English love (noun) Old English lufian → 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 dialects of Northern Italy. 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'). Latin illud → Spanish ello 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 linn ("a city") and linna ("of a city") are derived from linna and linnan respectively, as can still be seen in the corresponding Finnish word. In the genitive form, the final /n/, while it was being deleted, blocked the loss of /a/. In Colloquial Finnish, the final vowel is sometimes omitted from case markers. Some languages have apocopations that are internalized as mandatory forms.