Haplology
Haplology is defined as the elimination of an entire syllable through dissimilation: when two identical or similar syllables occur consecutively. The phenomenon was identified by American philologist Maurice Bloomfield 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: sagarrardo > sagardo
- Dutch: narcissisme > narcisme
- English:
- * Old English Englaland > England
- * morphophonology > morphonology
- * coercitive > coercive
- * mono nomial > monomial
- * urine analysis > urinalysis
- * Colloquial :
- **library > *libry
- ** particularly > *particuly
- ** probably > *probly
- ** February > *Febury
- ** representative > * representive
- ** authoritative > * authoritive
- Latin:
- * nutritrix > nutrix 'nurse'
- * idololatria > idolatria
- Biological Latin:
- * Hamamelididae
- * Nycterididae > Nycteridae
- * Anomalocaridid > Anomalocarid
- Homeric Greek: amphiphoreus > amphoreus 'two-handled pitcher, amphora'
- Arabic:
- * tataqātalūna > taqātalūna 'you are fighting each other'
- * *ʾaʾkulu > ʾākulu 'I eat'
- Spanish: impudicicia > impudicia 'lack of modesty'
Dittology
The reverse process is known as dittology. It is less common but encountered in some languages. For instance, in the Northern Kurdish or Kurmanji, numerals "du" and "sê" undergo a dittological prosess when used in counting:
