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Vowel dropping

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A phonetic device involving the omission or suppression of unstressed vowel sounds to maintain meter or enhance rhythm (e.g., “o’er” for “over”).

Detailed Definition
The elision of vowel sounds in poetry for metrical purposes, creating compressed pronunciations marked by apostrophes. Examples include "th'eternal" for "the eternal," "heav'nly" for "heavenly," and "flow'rs" for "flowers." While essential in Renaissance and neoclassical verse for maintaining regular meter, vowel dropping appears less frequently in modern poetry except for deliberate archaic effect or specific prosodic requirements, representing historical solution to English prosodic challenges.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: “Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness” drops vowels in “unravish’d” for metrical flow; T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”: “’Streets that follow like a tedious argument” uses “’Streets” for “The Streets”; Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18: “Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade” drops vowel in “wander’st”; Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” uses “I’m” and implied elisions; A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young”: “And home is the hero” drops auxiliary verbs via vowel omission; Contemporary spoken word poets often drop vowels in contractions (“gonna,” “wanna”) for rhythmic authenticity.
Additional Notes
Elision of vowels for metrical purposes. Common in formal verse maintaining regular meter. Marked with apostrophe. Examples include "th'eternal" and "heav'n."
Also Known As
Vocalic elision Vowel syncope Vowel contraction Metrical vowel drop Elision
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