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Apocope

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Loss of word-final sounds

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Supermarket aisle sign in Calgary, Canada, in 2025, showing apocope of-ed in etymologicalcanned meat andcanned vegetables

Sound change andalternation
Metathesis Quantitative metathesis
Lenition Consonant gradation Consonant voicing and devoicing Assibilation Spirantization L-vocalization Debuccalization
Fortition
Epenthesis Prothesis Paragoge Unpacking Vowel breaking
Elision Apheresis Syncope Apocope Haplology Cluster reduction
Transphonologization Compensatory lengthening Nasalization Tonogenesis Floating tone
Assimilation Fusion Coarticulation Palatalization Velarization Labialization Final devoicing Metaphony (vowel harmony,umlaut) Consonant harmony
Dissimilation
Sandhi Liaison,linking R Consonant mutation Tone sandhi Vowel hiatus Synalepha Elision Crasis Synaeresis anddiaeresis Synizesis
Other types Apophony Affrication Gemination Clipping Fronting Raising Betacism Iotacism Fusion Merger Compensatory lengthening Monophthongization Rhotacism Rhinoglottophilia Sulcalization Shm-reduplication Consonant mutation Vowel shift Chain shift
v t e

Inphonology,apocope (/əˈpɒkəpi/ə-POCK-ə-pee)^[1]^[2] is the omission (elision) or loss of a sound or sounds at the end of a word. While it most commonly refers to the loss of a final vowel, it can also describe the deletion of finalconsonants or even entiresyllables.^[3]

For instance, in much spoken English, thet in the worddon't is lost in the phraseI don't know, leading to the written representationI dunno.

The resulting word form after apocope has occurred is called anapocopation.

Etymology

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Apocope comes from theGreekἀποκοπή (apokopḗ) fromἀποκόπτειν (apokóptein) 'cutting off', fromἀπο- (apo-) 'away from' andκόπτειν (kóptein) 'to cut'.^[4]^[5]

Historical sound change

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Inhistorical linguistics, the termapocope is often used to refer to the systemic loss of final unstressed vowels and/ornasal consonants as part of a regularsound-change. This kind of apocope often entails change to or loss ofinflexional endings.^[6]

Examples of the loss of an unstressed vowel and/or nasal consonant

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Latinmare → Portuguesemar (sea)
Vulgar Latinpanem → Spanishpan (bread)
Vulgar Latinlupum → Frenchloup (wolf)
Latincivitatem → Italiancittà (city)
Proto-Germanic*landą →Old,Middle, and Modern Englishland
Old Englishlufu → Modern Englishlove (noun)
Old Englishlufian → Modern Englishlove (verb)
The loss of a final unstressed vowel is a feature ofsouthern dialects of Māori in comparison to standard Māori, for example the termkainga (village) is rendered in southern Māori askaik. A similar feature is seen in theGallo-Italic languages.
Finniclinna → Estonianlinn (city)
Finniclinnan → Estonianlinna (city's)
Colloquial Finnishsuomeksi →suomeks (in Finnish)

Examples of the loss of other sounds

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Non-rhotic English accents, including BritishReceived Pronunciation, suppress the finalr in each syllable (except when it is followed by a vowel). (In most accents, the suppressedr lengthens ormodifies the preceding vowel.)
French pronunciationsuppresses the final consonant of most words (but itis normally pronounced as aliaison at the beginning of the following word in the sentence if the latter word begins with a vowel or with an unaspirated 'h').

Grammatical rule

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Some languages have apocopations that are internalized as mandatory forms. InSpanish andItalian, for example, someadjectives that come before thenoun lose the final vowel or syllable if they precede a noun (mainly) in themasculine singular form. In Spanish, someadverbs andcardinal andordinal numbers have apocopations as well.

Adjectives
- grande ("big, great") →gran →gran mujer (feminine) ("great woman". However, if the adjective follows the noun, the final syllable remains, but the meaning may also change:mujer grande, meaning "large woman")
- bueno ("good") →buen →buen hombre (masculine) ("good man"; the final vowel remains inhombre bueno, with no accompanying change in meaning)
Adverbs
- tanto ("so much") →tan ("so") →tan hermoso ("so beautiful")
Cardinal numbers
- uno ("one, a, an") →un →un niño ("a child")
- ciento ("hundred") →cien →Cien años de soledad ("One hundred years of solitude")
Ordinal numbers
- primero ("first") →primer →primer premio ("first prize")
- segundo ("second, according to") →segund ("according to") →según →El evangelio según ("The Gospel according to")
- tercero ("third") →tercer →tercer lugar ("third place")
- postrero ("final") →postrer →postrer día ("final day")

Economy of expression

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Apocope can also refer to the shortening of words for economy. This is common in nicknames, such asWilliam →Will orMargery →Marge, but occurs in other words, such asfanatic →fan andlaboratory →lab.^[6]

References

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^"Apocope".Oxford Dictionaries UK English Dictionary.Oxford University Press. Archived fromthe original on December 5, 2021.^{[dead link]}
^"Apocope".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved2016-01-21.
^Campbell, Lyle (2007).Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. p. 13.ISBN 978-0-7486-3019-6.
^"apocope, n.",Oxford English Dictionary (3 ed.), Oxford University Press, 2023-03-02,doi:10.1093/oed/5903421853, retrieved2025-07-23
^Matthews, P. H. (2014). "Apocope".The concise Oxford dictionary of linguistics. Oxford paperback reference (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-967512-8.
^^a ^bMcArthur, Tom; Lam-McArthur, Jacqueline; Fontaine, Lise, eds. (2018). "Apocope".The Oxford Companion to English Language. S. I.: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-966128-2.