110. Only vowels which are short and atonic may be lost. The loss of a
medial vowel is called _Syncope_; of an initial vowel, _Aphaeresis_; of
a final vowel _Apocope_.
111. SYNCOPE. (_a._) Loss of a posttonic vowel, entailing the loss of a
syllable, occurs in #ardus# (Lucil.; for #ă# see 128) for the common
#āridus#, _dry_; #caldus# by the side of #calidus#, _warm_ (Quint. 1,
6, 19); #reppulī#, _I pushed back_, and #rettulī#, _I carried back_,
stand for #*répepulī# and #*rétetulī# (861); #pergō#, _I proceed_,
stands for #*perregō# from #regō# (cf. #cor-rigō#, #ē-rigō#, where the
#e# is weakened, 103, and #porrigō#, #porgō#, where it is either
weakened or lost), hence it forms its perfect #perrēxī# (953): #pōnō#,
_I place_, is for #*posnō# (170, 2) from #*po-sinō# (112), hence it
forms its past participle #positus# (972); for #iūrgō#, _I blame_.
Plautus has #iūrigō#; #*ūsūripō# (from #ūsus# and #rapere#) yields
#ūsurpō#, _I utilize_; #*gāvideō#, hence #gāvīsus# (801), gives
#gaudeo#, _I rejoice_, converting #āṷ# to #aṷ# before the following
#d# (128); in a similar way #auceps#, _bird-catcher_, is formed from
#*aviceps# (#avis#, _bird_, and #capere#, _catch_); #claudere#, _lock_,
from #*clāvidere# (#clāvis#, _key_); #aetās#, _age_, for #áevitās#
(262); #praecō#, _herald_, for #*práevicō# (105, _g_) #prae-vocō# (211);
also with change of #ou# to #ū# (100), #prūdēns#, _prudent_, for
#*proudēns# from #providēns#, _foreseeing_; #nūper#, _lately_, from
#*noviper#; #nūntius#, _messenger_, from #*noventius# (333); #iūcundus#,
_joyful_, from #iuvicundus# (Cic. _Fin._ 2, 14). But forms like
#pōclum#, _cup_, #saeclum#, _age_, do not belong here, as they are
original and not derived by syncope from #pōculum#, #saeculum#; cf. 172.
(_b._) Where, through the loss of a vowel, #l# or #r# would come to
stand between two consonants, or where they would be final and preceded
by a consonant, #l# and #r# become syllabic (83) and the syllable is
thus maintained. Syllabic #l# is represented by #ul#, syllabic #r# by
#er# (172, 3). The development of such intercalary vowels as #u# before
#l# and #e# before #r# is called _Anaptyxis_ (172). Thus, #*sacri-dōts#
(cf. #sacri-legium#) became first #*sacr̥dōts# by syncope, then
#sacerdōs#, _priest_, by anaptyxis; #*ācribus# (cf. #ācri-mōnia#,
_pungency_) first became #*ācr̥bus# then #ācerbus#, _pungent_;
#*agrilos# (267, cf. #agri-cola#, _farmer_) became first #*agr̥los#,
then #*agerlos#, and finally, by assimilation of the #r# to #l#
(166, 7), #agellus#, _small field_; from #*dis-ficilter# (adverb from
#dis-# and #facilis#) arose #*difficl̥ter# and #difficulter#, _with
difficulty_. The nominative sg. of the following words is to be
explained thus. #ager# (451) was originally #*agros# (cf. Greek ἄγρος),
which changed successively to #*agr̥s#, #*agers#, and #ager# (for the
loss of #-s# see 171, 1 and 3). Similarly #*ācris#, passing through the
stages of #*ācr̥s#, #*ācers#, became #ācer# (627), and #*famlos# by way
of #*faml̥s#, #*famuls#, became #famul# (455), to which later the common
ending of nouns of the #o-#declension was added, giving #famulus#.
112. APHAERESIS. Aphaeresis hardly occurs in literary Latin. In the
pronoun #iste# the initial #i# is sometimes dropped (667); this loss
implies an accented ultima (94). A trace of prehistoric aphaeresis is
found in the prefix #po-# for #*apo# (Greek ἀπό) in #pōnō#, _I place_,
for #po-s(i)nō# (111, _a_).
113. APOCOPE. Under the same conditions under which a medial vowel was
syncopated, the final vowel of a word which stood in close union with
the following word, as a preposition with its noun, was lost. In this
way #*peri# (Greek περί) became #per#; #*apo# (Greek ἀπό) became #ap#,
#ab# (164, 2); #*eti# (Greek ἔτι) became #et#. Similarly the final #-e#
of the enclitics #-ce#, #-ne#, _not_, and #-ne# interrogative was lost:
#*sī-ce# became #sīc#, _so_; #*quī-ne#, #quīn#, _why not_; #habēsne#,
#haben#, _hast thou_; the imperatives #dīc#, _say_, #dūc#, _lead_, and
#fac#, _do_, stand for earlier #dīce#, #dūce#, #face# (846); the
shortened form #em# for #eme# (imperative of #emere#, _take_) has been
turned into an interjection (1149). In the same way #nec# arose by the
side of #neque#; #ac# by the side of #atque# (158). Final #-e# has also
been dropped in the nominative sg. of a number of polysyllabic neuter
stems in #-āli# and #-āri# (546): as, #animal#, _animal_, for
#*animāle#, #exemplar#, _pattern_, for #*exemplāre#. See 536, 537. It
must, however, be remembered that in most of the cases given the loss of
a final vowel would also result from elision (119) before the initial
vowel of the following word.