[New-Poetry] Questions on form

[Robin Hamilton]

> On Wed, 2 Jan 2008, Bob Grumman wrote:
>
>> Isn't it standard for inconsequential syllables to drop out of words as 
>> languages evolve?  If so, at some point, a two syllable pronunciation of 
>> a word like "different"--or "dialect," which I still usually pronounce as 
>> three syllables but sometimes as just two--will become "correct."
>
> It's definitely one mechanism of language change, although syllables and 
> extra prefixes and suffixes get added too. Particularly in Chinese for 
> example, the creation of multiple syllable words has been a major vehicle 
> of dialect change.

Notably (and catastrophically) the loss of the final unaccented 'e' after 
Chaucer.

In Scots, there's the marked loss of the final 'l' in certain words, leading 
to " wa' " (for "wall"), ca', fa', etc.

R.