1095: Dropping Fricatives if e'er They're in the Middle Dec 8, 2017

People who have studied literature are probably familiar with the form of 'e'er' for 'ever', or other examples—particularly in poetry—where the fricative (usually [v]) is dropped from the middle of a word. This can be seen repeatedly in the first four lines of An EPITAPH by Joseph Giles(*):
If e'er sharp sorrow from thine eyes did flow,
If e'er thy bosom felt another's woe,
If e'er fair beauty's charms thy heart did prove,
If e'er the offspring of thy virtuous love...
By the eighteenth century, this was fairly common in poetry, though not as popular in everyday speech. What was becoming more common at that time was to drop a fricative from the contracted forms, so 'isn't' might become 'in't', which is still used by some people as an alternative form of 'ain't, but also this occurred with 'wasn't and 'hasn't' and many other words. As is always the case with the evolution of language, it was faced with some protest, but there are still some traces today.
Tomorrow is the 3-year anniversary of Word Facts, and the start of a week of posts covering syllables and stresses.

(*) A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 92-93. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.005). Retrieved from http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org