In phonetics, apheresis (British English: aphaeresis; pronounced /əˈfɛrɨsɪs/ or /əˈfɪərɨsɪs/, from Greek apo away, hairein to take) is the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.

Contents 1 Apheresis as a historical sound change 1.1 The loss of any sound 1.2 The loss of an unstressed vowel 2 Aphaeresis as a poetic device 3 Aphaeresis in informal speech 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Apheresis as a historical sound change

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 /ˈæfɨsɪs/.)

[edit] The loss of any sound

• English [k]nife pronounced /ˈnaɪf/
• Swedish [st]rand > Finnish ranta "beach"

[edit] The loss of an unstressed vowel

• Greek episkopos > Vulgar Latin [e]biscopu > English bishop
• English [a]cute > cute
• English [E]gyptian > Gyptian > Gypsy^{[citation needed]}
• English [a]mend > mend
• English [e]scape + goat > scapegoat
• Old French evaniss- > English vanish
• English esquire > squire

[edit] Aphaeresis as a poetic device

• English it is > poetic ’tis

[edit] Aphaeresis in informal speech

• Spanish está > Familiar Spanish [e]tá > ta ("is")

[edit] See also

Look up apheresis or aphaeresis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Syncope
• Apocope
• Elision
• List of phonetics topics

[edit] References

• Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.