Elision is the removal of one or more letters in a word to reduce syllables or merge words, often marked with an apostrophe. It is used in poetry to maintain meter and in many languages to shorten or merge words for easier pronunciation. Contractions are a common example of elision, but it is also used in French to connect words with an apostrophe. Some elisions are not marked with an apostrophe and occur in speech due to dialect or hasty pronunciation.
An elision removes one or more letters in a word to reduce the number of syllables or to merge words. The missing letter is usually replaced with an apostrophe. Usually used intentionally, elisions are frequently seen in certain poems to keep a fixed meter, such as iambic pentameter. It is also used in many languages to shorten words or make certain pairs of words easier to pronounce. Also, it is employed in speech when the pronunciation of words is abbreviated or confused.
In poetry that requires a specific metre, or a specific number of stressed syllables in each line, elision is commonly employed. Generally used to remove a letter from the end or middle of a word, elision can merge two words together or drop a syllable from a single word. When mixing two words, the first word must end with a vowel and the second must begin with one, as in “th’ expanse” for “the expanse”. If a letter is removed from the center of a word, the letter can be a constant or a vowel, such as “ne’er” for “never” or “op’ning” for “opening”.
Many languages use elision to shorten or merge more than one word in order to improve the flow of sentences or speed up speech. Contractions are one of the best known examples of elision, such as in “won’t” which stands for “will not” in English. Both “I won’t” and “I won’t” are grammatically correct, although contractions are discouraged in some formal scripts.
In other languages, however, elisions are needed. For example, in French certain words are mixed together to improve flow. If a word, usually a pronoun or article, ends in an “e” or an “a” and the preceding word begins with a vowel, the “e” or “a” from the first word is dropped and the two words are connected with an apostrophe. For example, the French word for “I” is “je” and the first person spelling of the verb “to have” is “ai.” Writing, or saying, “je ai”, however, is grammatically incorrect. Instead, elision must be used: “j’ai”.
While elisions usually indicate the loss of one or more letters with an apostrophe, not all instances do. Elisions used in speech as a result of dialectic or hasty pronunciation often simply combine words together. When these types of elision are seen in writing, they are often represented by new words or have no change in written spelling. For example, the word “math” is often shortened to omit the central “e” sound when spoken, but is still written to include it. Alternatively, the sentence “I don’t know”, which already contains an elision, can be further shortened in speech to “I don’t know”.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
