aphesis

1 9.9

Loss of the first vowel or syllable of a word, for example 'alone' to 'lone'

noun
/əˈfɛsɪs/

Specialized

: afesis

The word 'lone' is a result of aphesis from 'alone'.

Examples

Can you explain the concept of aphesis?
The term aphesis refers to a specific phonetic change.
Linguists study aphesis to understand changes in word origins and pronunciations.
Some English words have shorter forms due to aphesis over time.
A common example of aphesis occurs in the word 'squire', which comes from 'esquire'.
In linguistics, aphesis is illustrated by the transformation of 'squire' from its original 'esquire'.
The term aphesis describes how initial unstressed syllables, like the 'e' in 'esquire', can be dropped over time.

Synonyms

apheresis

vsaphesis

Specialized

9.9

The loss of sounds or letters at the start of a word

is a gradual loss limited to an initial unstressed vowel or syllable

Surface Forms

aphesis singular

apheses plural

Etymology

Aphesis comes from a Greek word that means 'letting go', a simple picture for what happens to a word when its start is dropped. So aphesis names the change when a word loses its first vowel or syllable, as in 'alone' becoming 'lone'.