   in phonology, syncope' (; greek: syn- + koptein "to strike, cut off") is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel. it is found both in synchronic analysis of languages and diachronics. its opposite, whereby sounds are added, is epenthesis. ==synchronic analysis == synchronic analysis studies linguistic phenomena at one moment, usually the present. in modern languages, syncope occurs in inflection, poetry, and informal speech. ==in inflections== in languages such as irish, the process of inflection can precipitate syncope. for example : * in some verbs :imir (to play) should become *"imirÃ­m" (i play). however the addition of the "-Ã­m" causes syncope and the second last syllable vowel "i" is lost. so, imir becomes imrÃ­m. * in some nouns :inis (island) should become *inise in the genitive case. however, if one looks at road signs one finds not *"baile na hinise", but "baile na hinse" (the town of the island). once again the loss is of the second syllable "i". it is interesting that if the present root form in irish is the result of diachronic syncope then there is a resistance to synchronic syncope for inflection. ==as a poetic device== sounds may be removed from the interior of a word as a rhetorical or poetic device, whether for embellishment or for the sake of the meter. *latin commo[ve]rat > poetic commorat ("he had moved") *english hast[e]ning > poetic hast'ning *english heav[e]n > poetic heav'n *english over > poetic o'er *english never > poetic ne'er ==in informal speech== various sorts of colloquial reductions might be called "syncope". it is also called compression.  forms such as "didn't" that are written with an apostrophe are, however, generally called contractions: *english [au]stra[lia]n > colloquial strine *english did n[o]t > di[d]n't *english i [woul]d [ha]ve > i'd've *english doin[g] > doin (as with many other verbs ending with -ing) ==found diachronically as a historical sound change== in historical phonetics, the term "syncope" is often but not always limited to the loss of an unstressed vowel: ===loss of any sound=== *old english hlÄfweard > hlÄford > middle english loverd > english lord *english worcester,
Figures_of_speech Phonology Prosody_(linguistics)