- Haplology
Haplology is defined as the elimination of a
syllable when two consecutive identical or similar syllables occur. The phenomenon was identified by Americanphilologist Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century.cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Feb.6.2008 |title=Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 06, 2008 |accessdate=2008-02-06 |work=Merriam-Webster Online ] Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to the phenomenon as "haplogy" (subjecting the word "haplology" to haplology).; Conditions: 1) Syllables are both medial; and: 2) The structure of the two syllables is similar.
Example
* Basque: "sagarrardo" > "sagardo" 'apple cider'
* English (colloquial):
** "Engla land" > "England"
** "particularly" > "particuly"
** "pierced-ear earrings" > "pierced earrings"
** "probably" > "probly"
* Latin: "nutritrix" > "nutrix" 'nurse'See also
*
Haplography References
*Crowley, Terry. (1997) "An Introduction to Historical Linguistics." 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.
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