Aphaeresis

Aphaeresis (from ἀφαίρεσις, removal) is far less frequent than elision and consists in dropping the initial vowel of a word; it is likewise marked by an apostrophe. Aphaeresis occurs mainly in poetry, when a word starts with a short vowel preceded by a word ending either in a long vowel or in a diphthong; in these cases, authors plainly favoured the loss of the phonetically less important vowel in order to avoid hiatus.

Ex.: μὴ ἐγώ › μὴ 'γώ, not me; ἐγὼ ἐκάλυψα › ἐγὼ 'κάλυψα, I hide.

Aphaeresis sometimes involves changes in word accents. More specifically:

• the accent moves onto the next vowel when the lost vowel carried an accent and the first of the two words is neither oxytone nor perispomenon. Ex.: πλεῖστοι ἔθανον › πλεῖστοι 'θάνον, a great number died;
• an acute accent does not change to grave when the lost vowel carried an accent and the first of the two words is oxytone. Ex.: ὅτε δὴ ἔγνων › ὅτε δή 'γνων, when I learned.