We've Come A Long, Long Way

A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds.

In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in layman’s terms. Contraction is also distinguished from morphological clipping, where beginnings and endings are omitted.

The definition overlaps with the term portmanteau (a linguistic '' blend''), but a distinction can be made between a portmanteau and a contraction by noting that contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as ''do'' and ''not'', whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept that the portmanteau describes.

English

English has a number of contractions, mostly involving the elision of a vowel (which is replaced by an apostrophe in writing), as in ''I'm'' for "I am", and sometimes other changes as well, as in ''won't'' for "will not" or ''ain't'' for "am not". These contractions are common in speech and in informal writing, but tend to be avoided in more formal writing (with limited exceptions, such as the mandatory form of "o'clock").

The main contractions are listed in the following table (for more explanation see English auxiliaries and contractions).

Contraction is a type of elision, simplifying pronunciation through reducing (dropping or shortening) sounds occurring to a word group.

In subject–auxiliary inversion, the contracted negative forms behave as if they were auxiliaries themselves, changing place with the subject. For example, the interrogative form of ''He won't go'' is ''Won't he go?'', whereas the uncontracted equivalent is ''Will he not go?'', with ''not'' following the subject.

Chinese

The Old Chinese writing system (oracle bone script and bronzeware script) is well suited for the (almost) one-to-one correspondence between morpheme and glyph. Contractions, in which one glyph represents two or more morphemes, are a notable exception to this rule. About twenty or so are noted to exist by traditional philologists, and are known as ''jiāncí'' (兼詞, lit. 'concurrent words'), while more words have been proposed to be contractions by recent scholars, based on recent reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology, epigraphic evidence, and syntactic considerations. For example, 非 ēihas been proposed to be a contraction of 不 (bù) + 唯/隹 (wéi/zhuī). These contractions are not generally graphically evident, nor is there a general rule for how a character representing a contraction might be formed. As a result, the identification of a character as a contraction, as well as the word(s) that are proposed to have been contracted, are sometimes disputed.

As vernacular Chinese dialects use sets of function words that differ considerably from Classical Chinese, almost all classical contractions listed below are now archaic and have disappeared from everyday use. However, modern contractions have evolved from these new vernacular function words. Modern contractions appear in all the major modern dialect groups. For example, 别 (bié) 'don't' in Standard Mandarin is a contraction of 不要 (bùyào), while 覅 (fiào) 'don't' in Shanghainese is a contraction of 勿要 (wù yào), as is apparent graphically. Similarly, in Northeast Mandarin 甭 (béng) 'needn't' is both a phonological and graphical contraction of 不用 (bùyòng). Finally, Cantonese contracts 乜嘢 (mat1 ye5) 'what?' to 咩 (me1).

;Table of Classical Chinese contractions

Dutch

Some of the contractions in standard Dutch:

Informal Belgian Dutch utilizes a wide range of non-standard contractions, such as, for example, "hoe's't" (from "hoe is het?" - how are you?), "hij's d'r" (from "hij is daar" - he's there), "w'ebbe' goe' g'ete'" (from "we hebben goed gegeten" - we had eaten well) and "wa's da'?" (from "wat is dat?" - what is that?. Some of these contractions:

French

The French language has a variety of contractions, similar to English but mandatory, as in '' C'est la vie'' ("That's life"), where ''c'est'' stands for ''ce'' + ''est'' ("that is"). The formation of these contractions is called elision.

In general, any monosyllabic word ending in ''e caduc'' (schwa) will contract if the following word begins with a vowel, ''h'' or ''y'' (as ''h'' is silent and absorbed by the sound of the succeeding vowel; ''y'' sounds like ''i''). In addition to ''ce'' → ''c'-'' (demonstrative pronoun "that"), these words are ''que'' → ''qu'-'' (conjunction, relative pronoun, or interrogative pronoun "that"), ''ne'' → ''n'-'' ("not"), ''se'' → ''s'-'' ("himself", "herself", "itself", "oneself" before a verb), ''je'' → ''j'-'' ("I"), ''me'' → ''m'-'' ("me" before a verb), ''te'' → ''t'- '' (informal singular "you" before a verb), ''le'' or ''la'' → ''l'-'' ("the"; or "he", "she", "it" before a verb or after an imperative verb and before the word ''y'' or ''en''), and ''de'' → ''d'-'' ("of"). Unlike with English contractions, however, these contractions are mandatory: one would never say (or write) ''*ce est'' or ''*que elle''.

''Moi'' ("me") and ''toi'' (informal "you") mandatorily contract to ''m'-'' and ''t'-'' respectively after an imperative verb and before the word ''y'' or ''en''.

It is also mandatory to avoid the repetition of a sound when the conjunction ''si'' ("if") is followed by ''il'' ("he", "it") or ''ils'' ("they"), which begin with the same vowel sound ''i'': ''*si il'' → ''s'il'' ("if it", if he"); ''*si ils'' → ''s'ils'' ("if they").

Certain prepositions are also mandatorily merged with masculine and plural direct articles: ''au'' for ''à le'', ''aux'' for ''à les'', ''du'' for ''de le'', and ''des'' for ''de les''. However, the contraction of ''cela'' (demonstrative pronoun "that") to ''ça'' is optional and informal.

In informal speech, a personal pronoun may sometimes be contracted onto a following verb. For example, ''je ne sais pas'' (, "I don't know") may be pronounced roughly ''chais pas'' (), with the ''ne'' being completely elided and the of ''je'' being mixed with the of ''sais''. It is also common in informal contexts to contract ''tu'' to ''t'-'' before a vowel, e.g., ''t'as mangé'' for ''tu as mangé''.

Hebrew

In Modern Hebrew, the prepositional prefixes -בְּ /bə-/ 'in' and -לְ /lə-/ 'to' contract with the definite article prefix -ה (/ha-/) to form the prefixes -ב /ba/ 'in the' and -ל /la/ 'to the'. In colloquial Israeli Hebrew, the preposition את (/ʔet/), which indicates a definite direct object, and the definite article prefix -ה (/ha-/) are often contracted to 'ת (/ta-/) when the former immediately precedes the latter. Thus ראיתי את הכלב (/ʁaˈʔiti ʔet haˈkelev/, "I saw the dog") may become ראיתי ת'כלב (/ʁaˈʔiti taˈkelev/).

Italian

In Italian, prepositions merge with direct articles in predictable ways. The prepositions ''a'', ''da'', ''di'', ''in'', ''su'', ''con'' and ''per'' combine with the various forms of the definite article, namely ''il'', ''lo'', ''la'', ''l','' ''i'', ''gli'', ''gl','' and ''le''.

* Contractions with ''a'', ''da'', ''di'', ''in'', and ''su'' are mandatory, but those with ''con'' and ''per'' are optional.
* Words in parentheses are no longer very commonly used. However, there's a difference between ''pel'' and ''pei'', which are old-fashioned, and the other contractions of ''per'', which are frankly obsolete. ''Col'' and ''coi'' are still common; ''collo'', ''colla'', ''cogli'' and ''colle'' are nowadays rare in the written language, but common in speaking.
* Formerly, ''gl was often used before words beginning with ''i'', however it is no longer in very common (written) use.

The words ''ci'' and ''è'' (form of ''essere'', to be) and the words ''vi'' and ''è'' are contracted into ''c'è'' and ''v'è'' (both meaning "there is").
* "''C'è'' / ''V'è'' un problema" – There is a problem

The words ''dove'' and ''come'' are contracted with any word that begins with ''e'', deleting the ''-e'' of the principal word, as in "Com'era bello!" – "How handsome he / it was!", "Dov'è il tuo amico?" – "Where's your friend?" The same is often true of other words of similar form, e.g. ''quale''.

The direct object pronouns "lo" and "la" may also contract to form "l'" with a form of "avere", such as "L'ho comprato" - "I have bought it", or "L'abbiamo vista" - "We have seen her".

Spanish

Spanish has two mandatory phonetic contractions between prepositions and articles: ''al'' (to the) for ''a el'', and ''del'' (of the) for ''de el'' (not to be confused with ''a él'', meaning ''to him'', and ''de él'', meaning ''his'' or, more literally, ''of him'').

Other contractions were common in writing until the 17th century, the most usual being ''de'' + personal and demonstrative pronouns: ''destas'' for ''de estas'' (of these, fem.), ''daquel'' for ''de aquel'' (of that, masc.), ''dél'' for ''de él'' (of him) etc.; and the feminine article before words beginning with ''a-'': ''l'alma'' for ''la alma'', now ''el alma'' (the soul). Several sets of demonstrative pronouns originated as contractions of ''aquí'' (here) + pronoun, or pronoun + ''otro/a'' (other): ''aqueste'', ''aqueso'', ''estotro'' etc. The modern ''aquel'' (that, masc.) is the only survivor of the first pattern; the personal pronouns ''nosotros'' (we) and ''vosotros'' (pl. you) are remnants of the second. In medieval texts, unstressed words very often appear contracted: ''todol'' for ''todo el'' (all the, masc.), ''ques'' for ''que es'' (which is); etc. including with common words, like d'ome (d'home/d'homme) instead de ome (home/homme), and so on.

Though not strictly a contraction, a special form is used when combining con with mí, ti, or sí, which is written as ''conmigo'' for *''con mí'' (with me), ''contigo'' for *''con ti'' (with you sing.), ''consigo'' for *''con sí'' (with himself/herself/itself/themselves (themself).)

Finally, one can hear ''pa for ''para'', deriving as ''pa'l'' for ''para el'', but these forms are only considered appropriate in informal speech.

Portuguese

In Portuguese, contractions are common and much more numerous than those in Spanish. Several prepositions regularly contract with certain articles and pronouns. For instance, ''de'' (of) and ''por'' (by; formerly ''per'') combine with the definite articles ''o'' and ''a'' (masculine and feminine forms of "the" respectively), producing ''do'', ''da'' (of the), ''pelo'', ''pela'' (by the). The preposition ''de'' contracts with the pronouns ''ele'' and ''ela'' (he, she), producing ''dele'', ''dela'' (his, her). In addition, some verb forms contract with enclitic object pronouns: e.g., the verb ''amar'' (to love) combines with the pronoun ''a'' (her), giving ''amá-la'' (to love her).

Another contraction in Portuguese that is similar to English ones is the combination of the pronoun ''da'' with words starting in ''a'', resulting in changing the first letter ''a'' for an apostrophe and joining both words. Examples: ''Estrela d'alva'' (A popular phrase to refer to Venus that means "Alb star", as a reference to its brightness) ; ''Caixa d'água'' (water tank).

German

In informal, spoken German prepositional phrases, one can often merge the preposition and the article; for example, ''von dem'' becomes ''vom'', ''zu dem'' becomes ''zum'', or ''an das'' becomes ''ans''. Some of these are so common that they are mandatory. In informal speech, ''aufm'' for ''auf dem'', ''unterm'' for ''unter dem'', etc. are also used, but would be considered to be incorrect if written, except maybe in quoted direct speech, in appropriate context and style.

The pronoun ''es'' often contracts to ''s'' (usually written with the apostrophe) in certain contexts. For example, the greeting ''Wie geht es?'' is usually encountered in the contracted form ''Wie geht's?''.

Local languages in German-speaking areas

Regional dialects of German, and various local languages that usually were already used long before today's Standard German was created, do use contractions usually more frequently than German, but varying widely between different local languages. The informally spoken German contractions are observed almost everywhere, most often accompanied by additional ones, such as ''in den'' becoming ''in'n'' (sometimes ''im'') or ''haben wir'' becoming ''hamwer'', ''hammor'', ''hemmer'', or ''hamma'' depending on local intonation preferences. Bavarian German features several more contractions such as ''gesund sind wir'' becoming ''xund samma'', which are schematically applied to all word or combinations of similar sound. (One must remember, however, that German ''wir'' exists alongside Bavarian ''mir'', or ''mia'', with the same meaning.) The Munich-born footballer Franz Beckenbauer has as his catchphrase "Schau mer mal" ("Schauen wir einmal" - in English "We shall see."). A book about his career had as its title the slightly longer version of the phrase, "Schau'n Mer Mal".

Such features are found in all central and southern language regions. A sample from Berlin: ''Sag einmal, Meister, kann man hier einmal hinein?'' is spoken as ''Samma, Meesta, kamma hier ma rin?''

Several West Central German dialects along the Rhine River have built contraction patterns involving long phrases and entire sentences. In speech, words are often concatenated, and frequently the process of "liaison" is used. So, '' atkriegst Du nicht'' may become ''Kressenit'', or ''Lass mich gehen, habe ich gesagt'' may become ''Lomejon haschjesaat''.

Mostly, there are no binding orthographies for local dialects of German, hence writing is left to a great extent to authors and their publishers. Outside quotations, at least, they usually pay little attention to print more than the most commonly spoken contractions, so as not to degrade their readability. The use of apostrophes to indicate omissions is a varying and considerably less frequent process than in English-language publications.

Indonesian

In standard Indonesian, there are no contractions applied, although Indonesian contractions exist in Indonesian slang. Many of these contractions are ''terima kasih'' to ''makasih'' (''thank you''), ''kenapa'' to ''napa'' (''why''), ''nggak'' to ''gak'' (''not''), and ''sebentar'' to ''tar'' (''a moment'').

Norwegian

The use of contractions is not allowed in any form of standard Norwegian spelling; however, it is fairly common to shorten or contract words in spoken language. Yet, the commonness varies from dialect to dialect and from sociolect to sociolect—it depends on the formality etc. of the setting. Some common, and quite drastic, contractions found in Norwegian speech are "jakke" for "jeg har ikke", meaning "I do not have" and "dække" for "det er ikke", meaning "there is not". The most frequently used of these contractions—usually consisting of two or three words contracted into one word, contain short, common and often monosyllabic words like , , , , or . The use of the apostrophe (') is much less common than in English, but is sometimes used in contractions to show where letters have been dropped.

In extreme cases, long, entire sentences may be written as one word. An example of this is "Det ordner seg av seg selv" in standard written Bokmål, meaning "It will sort itself out" could become "dånesæsæsjæl" (note the letters Å and Æ, and the word "sjæl", as an eye dialect spelling of ). R-dropping, being present in the example, is especially common in speech in many areas of Norway , but plays out in different ways, as does elision of word-final phonemes like .

Because of the many dialects of Norwegian and their widespread use it is often difficult to distinguish between non-standard writing of standard Norwegian and eye dialect spelling. It is almost universally true that these spellings try to convey the way each word is pronounced, but it is rare to see language written that does not adhere to at least some of the rules of the official orthography. Reasons for this include words spelled unphonemically, ignorance of conventional spelling rules, or adaptation for better transcription of that dialect's phonemes.

Latin

Latin contains several examples of contractions. One such case is preserved in the verb ''nolo'' (I am unwilling/do not want), which was formed by a contraction of ''non volo'' (''volo'' meaning "I want"). Similarly this is observed in the first person plural and third person plural forms (nolumus and nolunt respectively).

Japanese

Some contractions in rapid speech include ～っす (''-ssu'') for です (''desu'') and すいません (''suimasen'') for すみません (''sumimasen''). では (''dewa'') is often contracted to じゃ (''ja''). In certain grammatical contexts the particle の (''no'') is contracted to simply ん (''n'').

When used after verbs ending in the conjunctive form ～て (''-te''), certain auxiliary verbs and their derivations are often abbreviated. Examples:

* this abbreviation is never used in the polite conjugation, to avoid the resultant ambiguity between an abbreviated ''ikimasu'' (go) and the verb ''kimasu'' (come).

The ending ～なければ (''-nakereba'') can be contracted to ～なきゃ (''-nakya'') when it is used to indicate obligation. It is often used without an auxiliary, e.g., 行かなきゃ（いけない） (''ikanakya (ikenai)'') "I have to go."

Other times, contractions are made to create new words or to give added or altered meaning:
* The word 何か (''nanika'') "something" is contracted to なんか (''nanka'') to make a colloquial word with a meaning along the lines of "sort of," but that can be used with almost no meaning. Its usage is as a filler word is similar to English "like."
* じゃない (''ja nai'') "is not" is contracted to じゃん (''jan''), which is used at the end of statements to show the speaker's belief or opinion, often when it is contrary to that of the listener, e.g., いいじゃん！ (''ii jan!'') "What, it's fine!"
* The commonly used particle-verb phrase という (''to iu'') is often contracted to ～って／～て／～っつー (''-tte/-te/-ttsū'') to give a more informal or noncommittal feeling.
* といえば (''to ieba''), the conditional form of という (''to iu'') mentioned above, is contracted to ～ってば (''-tte ba'') to show the speaker's annoyance at the listener's failure to listen to, remember, or heed what the speaker has said, e.g., もういいってば！ (''mō ii tte ba!''), "I already told you I don't want to talk about it anymore!".
* The common words だ (''da'') and です (''desu'') are older contractions that originate from である (''de aru'') and でございます (''de gozaimasu''). These are fully integrated into the language now, and are not generally thought of as contractions; however in formal writing (e.g., literature, news articles, or technical/scientific writing), である (''de aru'') is used in place of だ (''da'').
* The first-person singular pronoun 私 is pronounced わたくし (''watakushi'') in very formal speech, but commonly contracted to わたし(''watashi'') in less formal speech, and further clipped in specifically younger women's speech to あたし (''atashi'').

Various dialects of Japanese also use their own specific contractions that are often unintelligible to speakers of other dialects.

Polish

In the Polish language pronouns have contracted forms that are more prevalent in their colloquial usage. Examples are ''go'' and ''mu''. The non-contracted forms are ''jego'' (unless it is used as a possessive pronoun) and ''jemu'', respectively. The clitic ''-ń'', which stands for ''niego'' (him) as in ''dlań'' (''dla niego''), is more common in literature. The non-contracted forms are generally used as a means to accentuate.http://nkjp.pl/settings/papers/NKJP_ksiazka.pdf (p.82)

Uyghur

Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in Central Asia, includes some verbal suffixes that are actually contracted forms of compound verbs ( serial verbs). For instance, ''sëtip alidu'' (sell-manage, "manage to sell") is usually written and pronounced ''sëtivaldu'', with the two words forming a contraction and the leniting into a or

Filipino/Tagalog

In Filipino, most contractions need other words to be contracted correctly. Only words that end with vowels can make a contraction with words like "at" and "ay." In this chart, the "@" represents any vowel.

See also

* Apostrophe
* Blend
* Clipping (morphology)
* Contractions of negated auxiliary verbs in English
* Elision
* List of common English usage misconceptions
* Poetic contraction
* Synalepha
* Syncope (phonetics)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contraction (Grammar)
Abbreviations
Types of words
Syntactic categories