Syncope (phonetics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) |
- For other uses of the word syncope, see syncope (disambiguation)
| Historical sound change |
|---|
| General |
| Metathesis |
| Dissimilation |
| Fortition |
| Lenition (weakening) |
| Sonorization (voicing) |
| Spirantization (assibilation) |
| Rhotacism |
| Debuccalization (loss of place) |
| Elision (loss) |
| Apheresis (initial) |
| Syncope (medial) |
| Apocope (final) |
| Haplology (similar syllables) |
| Fusion |
| Cluster reduction |
| Compensatory lengthening |
| Epenthesis (addition) |
| Anaptyxis (vowel) |
| Excrescence (consonant) |
| Prosthesis (initial) |
| Paragoge (final) |
| Unpacking |
| Vowel breaking |
| Assimilation |
| Coarticulation |
| Palatalization (before front vowels) |
| Labialization (before rounded vowels) |
| Final devoicing (before silence) |
| Vowel harmony |
| Consonant harmony |
| Cheshirisation (trace remains) |
| Nasalization |
| Tonogenesis |
| Floating tone |
| Sandhi (boundary change) |
| Crasis (contraction) |
| Liaison, linking R |
| Consonant mutation |
| Tone sandhi |
| Hiatus |
In phonology, syncope /ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi:/ (Greek syn- + kopein “to strike”) is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel.
Contents |
[edit] Syncope as a historical sound change
In historical phonetics, the term "syncope" is often but not always limited to the loss of an unstressed vowel:
[edit] The loss of any sound
- Old English hláford > English lord
- English Worcester, pronounced [ˈwʊstə]
- English Gloucester, pronounced [ˈɡlɒstə]
[edit] The loss of an unstressed vowel
- Latin cál[i]dum > Italian caldo "hot"
- Latin óc[u]lum > Italian occhio "eye"
- Latin trem[u]láre > Italian tremare "to tremble"
[edit] Syncope as a poetic device
Sounds may be removed from the interior of a word as a rhetoric or poetic device, whether for embellishment or for the sake of the meter.
- Latin commo[ve]rat > poetic commorat ("he had moved")
- English hast[e]ning > poetic hast'ning
- English heav[e]n > poetic heav'n
- English over > poetic o'er
[edit] Syncope in informal speech
Various sorts of colloquial reductions might be called "syncope". Forms such as "didn't" that are written with an apostrophe are, however, generally called contractions:
- English [Au]stra[lia]n > colloquial Strine
- English go[ing t]o> gonna
- English wa[nt t]o > wanna
- English did n[o]t > didn't
- English do[n't k]no[w] > dunno
- English I [woul]d [h]ave > I'd've
