Trisyllabic deletion
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Trisyllabic reduction or deletion is a phenomenon in English, in which a syllable is typically deleted in word of three or more syllables. For example, 'interest' is often pronounced as 'intrest' and 'chocolate' as 'choclate'. This occurrence depends of the following conditions:
- The first syllable has the main stress, followed by two unstressed syllables.
- The first syllable is usually a closed syllable, i.e., it has a consonant coda, i.e., it ends in a consonant or consonant cluster.
- The first unstressed syllable is deleted.
- Both unstressed syllables, and especially the deleted syllable, contain a schwa /ə/.
- The deleted syllable usually precedes a more sonorant consonant, most often, /l/ or /r/.
- This generally occurs in casual, colloquial, or fast speech.
That is:
- Ś s s → Ś s
1 Modern English examples
2 Historical examples
This process has happened historically in English, such that some words were permanently shortened from Old English or Middle English, and it is the shortened words that mainly survive in modern English (or in a few cases, the shortened word survived alongside the original word, but with a different meaning). Here are a few examples (Lahiri & Fikkert, 1999, p. 232).[1]
| original Old / Middle English word | Modern English |
|---|---|
| webbestre | webster |
| loppestre | lobster |
| Gloucester | Glouster |
| Leicester | Leister |
| fantesie | fancy |
| curte(i)sie | curtsy |
| martinet | martlet |
| perseli | parsley |
| partener | partner |
| vintener | vintner |
| perchemin | parchment |
- ↑ Syncope of medial syllable Old and Middle English words. Lahiri, Aditi, & Fikkert, Paula. (1999). Trisyllabic shortening in English: past and present. English Language and Linguistics 3(2), 229-267.
