noun
- Plural of aphesis; the loss or omission of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word, as in the development of English 'squire' from 'esquire'.
Usage: linguistics; historical
Examples
- Apheses are common in the historical development of many languages.
- The word 'phone' resulted from aphesis of the initial vowel in 'telephone'.
- Linguists study apheses to understand sound changes in language evolution.
- Several apheses occurred in Old English as words were borrowed and adapted.
- The process of apheses can be traced through comparative historical linguistics.