Elision refers to when a sound or syllable is lost or omitted. It particularly affects: (a) consonant clusters, (b) weakly stressed syllables that are not especially missed and (c) words that end in an alveolar consonant and that are immediately followed by a word beginning wiht a consonant. The sounds that are elided ard those sounds that are so weakly articulated that they no longer have any auditory significance. Contracted forms ot words are caused by elision.