Syncope (phonetics)

Sound change and alternation
Fortition
Dissimilation

In phonology, syncope ( /ˈsɪŋkəpiː/; Greek: syn- + koptein “to strike, cut off”) is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel. It is found both in Synchronic analysis of languages and Diachronics .

Contents

Found synchronically

Synchronic analysis is an analysis that views linguistic phenomena only at one point in time. Usually, the present. We find syncope happening within the functioning of modern languages. Here we consider it in three areas : Inflection, Poetry, and Informal Speech.

In inflections

In languages such as Irish, the process of inflection can precipitate syncope.

For example :

Imir (To play) should become *"imirím" (I play). However the addition of the "-ím" causes syncope and the second last syllable vowel "i" is lost. So, Imir becomes Imrím.
Inis (Island) should become *inise in the genitive case. However, if one looks at road signs one finds not *"Báile na hInise", but "Báile na hInse" (The town of the Island). Once again the loss is of the second syllable "i".

It is interesting that if the present root form in Irish is the result of diachronic syncope then there is a resistance to synchronic syncope for inflection. Historically in old Irish, as a rule, syncope happened whenever the addition of and ending gave rise to syncope.

As a poetic device

Sounds may be removed from the interior of a word as a rhetorical or poetic device, whether for embellishment or for the sake of the meter.

Syncope in informal speech

Various sorts of colloquial reductions might be called "syncope". It is also called compression.[1]

Forms such as "didn't" that are written with an apostrophe are, however, generally called contractions:

Found diachronically as a historical sound change

In historical phonetics, the term "syncope" is often but not always limited to the loss of an unstressed vowel:

Loss of any sound

Loss of an unstressed vowel

See also

References

  1. ^ Wells, John C. (2000). Longman Pronouncing Dictionary (2nd ed. ed.). Longman. pp. 165–6. ISBN 978-0-582-36467-7.