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The 16th rule of the English version of the fundamento is:
- The a of the article, and final o of substantives, may be sometimes dropped euphoniae gratia, e.g. de l’ mond'o for de la mond'o; Ŝiller’ for Ŝiller'o; in such cases an apostrophe should be substituted for the discarded vowel.
What does euphoniae gratia mean? I notice that in the French version it does not appear.
The expression stems from Latin (with ablative grātiā "with favour" + genitive forming a secondary adposition) and means literally "for the sake of euphony [pleasing sound]", so on the one hand in order to avoid a hiatus (de la akvo → de l' akvo), and on the other hand in order to save a syllable (like in the examples you give) or generate a rhyme in poetry.
