Talk:Syncope
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[edit] Is "Worcester" a syncope?
C'mon, Worcester is simply Worce (pronounced like "worse") + ster (pronounced like, well, "ster"). There's nothing in that that involves leaving phonemes out. Similarly, Gloucester is just Gloss + ster, and while it's odd that "Glouce" is pronounced "Gloss," there's still nothing left out. Same with Leicester (less-ster).
- The '-cester' of Worcester is ultimately from Latin castrum "camp, encampment, small city" and Gloucester and the others are indeed examples of syncope. Check any dictionary worth it's salt if you don't believe me.--Hraefen 02:32, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
- Worcester is pronounced /ˈwʊstə/), not like "worse" at all. In fact, it ultimately comes from Weogoraceaster -> Wigranceastre -> Wireceastre -> Worcester, all of which are examples of syncope. [1]
[edit] Split into two pages
Shouldn't this be made into a disambiguation page, with the two portions moved to separate articles? --Jacqui M Schedler 23:25, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
I agree with Jacqui above (though the section portion should be merged into the Fainting page, instead of becoming a new page. Any objections? --Arcadian 03:50, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Syncope vs. Elision
The article is unhelpful in saying "compare elision". Be more concrete! The Elision article says they are synonyms, and seems to be talking about the same thing. If so, the articles should be merged. -Pgan002 07:33, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
I've always understood syncope as a special kind of elision, based on my amateur knowledge of linguistics; syncope would be defined as the elision of medial sounds, especially unstressed vowels (decreasing the syllable count). Answers.com defines it as "The shortening of a word by omission of a sound, letter, or syllable from the middle of the word"; in a definition from another source (related to poetry) it says syncope is "a type of elision in which a word is contracted by removing one or more letters or syllables from the middle, as ne'er for never, or fo'c'sle for forecastle". Shortening and middle seem to be the important part of both definitions. One of the etymologies of syncope means "to cut short". I don't think this article should be merged with elision, though the relationship should indeed be made clearer. --Pablo D. Flores (Talk) 10:28, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
According to the Harmon/Holman Tenth Edition of A Handbook to Literature, "Syncope is distinguished from elision in that it is usually confined the the omission of elements (usually vowels) inside a word [emphasis added], whereas elision usually runs two words together by the omission of a final sound [emphasis added]." [p. 512] The example it gives for elision is the shortening of "the orient" to "th'orient" [p. 183], and the example given for syncope is the shortening of "every" to "ev'ry" [p. 513]. It also notes that elision has naturally occured in the English laguage in order to shorten words with redundant-sounding syllables, such as "pacificist" to pacifist" and "femininist" to "feminist" [p. 513], facilitating pronunciation. It also notes that "Many Latin words have undergone syncope when passing into other languages, especially if an intervocalic consonant is invovled, as in magister which becomes, variously, "master," "maître," "maestro," and "Meister." I hope this helps in distinguishing the two. Certainly, if nothing else, elision and syncope are not synonyms. ~e.o.t.d~ 21:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
