Vowel Deletion in Italian

Vowel deletion is extensive in Italian. It is especially common in casual speech, but it also occurs in the written language. As in French, Italian vowel deletion occurs with articles and prepositions, but it also occurs with nouns, adjectives and prepositions.

Italian vowel deletion occurs with articles such as l'automobile (the automobile). This combines the feminine article la and the noun automobile. It also occurs with pronouns such as in L'ho visto (I have seen him). This combines the pronoun lo (him) with the verb visto (seen). To compare, in French these examples are l'auto and Je l'ai vu. They combine la and auto and also le and ai.

However, Italian vowel deletion occurs in many other instances. Here are examples:

mezz'ora (half hour)

nient'altro (nothing else)

quest'anno (this year)

senz'acqua (without water) 

trent'anni (thirty years)

These phrases combine mezza and ora, niente and altro, questo and anno, senza and acqua, and trenta and anni. The deletion of the vowel restructures the sequence of two vowels to one of consonant and vowel. This sequence is very common in not only Italian but in many languages.

The process of vowel deletion is very common. In Italian it is extensive in speech and in writing. The deletion of the vowel occurs not only with articles and pronouns but also with other grammatical categories.