Haplology (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

"simple" and , "speech") is, in spoken language, the

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

(elimination or deletion) of an entire

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...

through

dissimilation In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar. In English, dissimilation is particularly common with liquid consonants such as /r ...

(a differentiating shift that affects two neighboring similar sounds). The phenomenon was identified by American

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

Maurice Bloomfield Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D., LL.D. (February 23, 1855 – June 12, 1928) was an Austrian-born American philologist and Sanskrit scholar. Biography He was born Maurice Blumenfeld in Bielitz ( pl, Bielsko), in what was at that time Austrian Si ...

in the 20th century. Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to the phenomenon as "haplogy". As a general rule, haplology occurs in English adverbs of adjectives ending in "le", for example ''gentlely'' → ''gently''; ''ablely'' → ''ably''.

Examples

* Basque: → ('apple cider') * German: → (female 'wizard' or 'magician'; male: der Zauberer; female ending -in) * Dutch: → ('narcissism') * French: → ('femininity') * English: ** Old English → ''Engle lond'' → ''England'' ** ''

morphophonology Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes ...

'' → ''morphonology'' ** ''mono nomial'' → ''

monomial In mathematics, a monomial is, roughly speaking, a polynomial which has only one term. Two definitions of a monomial may be encountered: # A monomial, also called power product, is a product of powers of variables with nonnegative integer expon ...

'' ** ''urine analysis'' → ''

urinalysis Urinalysis, a portmanteau of the words ''urine'' and ''analysis'', is a panel of medical tests that includes physical (macroscopic) examination of the urine, chemical evaluation using urine test strips, and microscopic examination. Macroscopic e ...

'' ** Colloquial (non-standard and eye dialect spellings signalled by *): ***''library'' ( RP: ) → *''libry'' *** ''particularly'' → *''particuly'' *** ''probably'' → *''probly'' *** ''February'' → *''Febury'' *** ''representative'' → * ''representive'' *** ''authoritative'' → * ''authoritive'' * Latin: ** → 'nurse' ** → (hence ''

idolatry Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the ...

'') * Biological Latin: ** ''

Hamamelididae Hamamelididae is an obsolete botanical name at the rank of subclass. Because some hamamelidid members bear aments (''i.e.'', catkins), this subclass has been formerly known as ''Amentiferae''. Based on molecular phylogeny works, Hamamelididae app ...

'' (disallowed spelling: ''

Hamamelidae Hamamelididae is an obsolete botanical name at the rank of subclass. Because some hamamelidid members bear aments (''i.e.'', catkins), this subclass has been formerly known as ''Amentiferae''. Based on molecular phylogeny works, Hamamelididae a ...

'') ** ''Nycterididae'' → '' Nycteridae'' **

Anomalocaridid Radiodonta is an extinct order of stem-group arthropods that was successful worldwide during the Cambrian period. They may be referred to as radiodonts, radiodontans, radiodontids, anomalocarids, or anomalocaridids, although the last two origina ...

→ Anomalocarid * Homeric Greek: () → () 'two-handled pitcher,

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

' * Arabic: ** () → () 'you are fighting each other' ** () → () 'I eat' * Spanish: → 'lack of modesty' (i.e. the nominal form of , "immodest")

Dittology

The reverse process is known as dittology. It is less common but encountered in some languages. For instance, in the

Northern Kurdish Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...

Kurmanji Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...

, numerals "du" ('two, 2') and "sê" ('three, 3') undergo a dittological process when used in counting: * du → didu * sê → sisê

Examples

Dittology

See also