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Haplology (from Greek ἁπλόος haplóos "simple" and λόγος lógos, "speech") is, in spoken language, the elision (elimination or deletion) of an entire syllable or a part of it through dissimilation (a differentiating shift that affects two neighboring similar sounds). The phenomenon was identified by American philologist Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century. Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to the phenomenon as "haplogy", an autology. As a general rule, haplology occurs in English adverbs of adjectives ending in "le", for example gentlely → gently; ablely → ably.

Examples

• Basque: sagarrardo → sagardo ('apple cider')
• German: Zaubererin → Zauberin (female 'wizard' or 'magician'; male: der Zauberer; female ending -in); this is a productive pattern applied to other words ending in (spelt) -erer.
• Dutch: narcissisme → narcisme ('narcissism')
• French: fémininité → féminité ('femininity')
• English:
  • Old English Engla land → Engle lond → England (expected form would be *Engelland)
  • Old English cyning → English king (expected form would be *kinning)
  • morphophonology → morphonology
  • conservativism → conservatism
  • mononomial → monomial
  • urine analysis → urinalysis
  • Colloquial (non-standard and eye dialect spellings signalled by *):
    • library (RP: /ˈlaɪbrəri/) → *libry /ˈlaɪbri/
    • particularly → *particuly
    • probably → *probly
    • February → *Febury, Febuary or *Febr(u)y (compare e.g. Austrian German Feber)
    • representative → *representive
    • authoritative → *authoritive
    • deteriorate → *deteriate
• Latin:
  • nutritrix → nutrix ('nurse')
  • idololatria → idolatria (hence idolatry)
• Biological Latin:
  • Hamamelididae (disallowed spelling: Hamamelidae)
  • Nycterididae → Nycteridae
  • Anomalocaridid → Anomalocarid
• Homeric Greek:
  • amphiphoreus (ἀμφιφορεύς) → amphoreus (ἀμφορεύς) ('two-handled pitcher, amphora')
  • kelainonéphēs (κελαινονέφης) → kelainéphēs (κελαινέφης) ('black with clouds')
• Arabic:
  • tataqātalūna (تَتَقَاتَلُونَ) → taqātalūna (تَقَاتَلُونَ) ('you are fighting each other')
  • * ʾaʾkulu (*أَأْكُلُ) → ʾākulu (آكُلُ) ('I eat')
• Spanish: impudicicia → impudicia ('lack of modesty', i.e. the nominal form of impúdico, 'immodest')
• Portuguese:
  • idadoso → idoso (aged person, senior)
  • femininismo → feminismo (feminism)
  • Colloquially in sequences like campo pequeno pronounced like "campequeno" or faculdade de letras pronounced like "faculdadletras".
• Italian:
  • tragico-comico → tragicomico ('tragicomic')
  • domani mattina → domattina ('tomorrow morning')

Reduplication

The reverse process is known as reduplication, the doubling of phonological material.

See also

• Haplography
• Dissimilation
• Portmanteau

Notes

1. ^ "Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 6, 2008". Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
2. U. Pani Shad; et al. (1971). "Glossary of linguistic terminology". In Zwicky, Arnold M.; Salus, Peter H.; Binnick, Robert I.; Vanek, Anthony L. (eds.). Studies out in Left Field: Defamatory essays presented to James D. McCawley on his 33rd or 34th birthday. Linguistic Research. p. 125. Reprinted as: U. Pani Shad; et al. (1992). "Glossary of linguistic terminology". In Zwicky, Arnold M.; Salus, Peter H.; Binnick, Robert I.; Vanek, Anthony L. (eds.). Studies out in Left Field: Defamatory essays presented to James D. McCawley on his 33rd or 34th birthday. John Benjamins. p. 125. doi:10.1075/z.63. ISBN 978-90-272-2111-7.
3. Trubetskoy, N.S. (1969). "Appendix II: Thoughts on Morphonology". In Baltaxe (transl.), Christiane A. M. (ed.). Principles of Phonology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 305. ISBN 0-520-01535-5. By morphonology or morphophonology we understand, as is well known, the study of the utilization in morphology of the phonological means of language. Translated from the German (Grundzüge der Phonologie, Prague, 1939).
4. "Mammal Species of the World - Browse: Nycteridae". bucknell.edu. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
5. Hock, Hans Henrich (1986). "Sound change: Dissimilation, haplology, metathesis". Principles of Historical Linguistics. De Gruyter. p. 109. ISBN 3-11-010600-0.
6. Beekes, R.S.P. (1971). "μώνυχες ἵπποι" (PDF). Orbis, International Journal of General Linguistics and Linguistic Documentation. 20: 138. For if there are no other consonants between the two identical ones (affected by haplology), the vowel after the first consonant is thrown out (ἀμ(φι)φορεύς, ἡμ(ιμ)έδινος, κελαι(νο)νέφης) {{cite journal}}: More than one of |at= and |page= specified (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 26 (help)
7. Kaye, Alan (1987). "Arabic". In Bernard Comrie (ed.). The World's Major Languages. Oxford University Press. p. 567. ISBN 0-19-520521-9.
8. "DRAE entry for 'impudicicia'". Diccionario de la lengua española Vigésima tercera edición (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-11-02.

References

• Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.

• Phonology