Haplology

Haplology (from Greek ἁπλόος haplóos "simple" and λόγος lógos, "speech") 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.[1] Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to the phenomenon as "haplogy".[2] 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)
• Dutch: narcissisme > narcisme ('narcissism')
• English:
  • Old English Englaland > England [1]
  • morphophonology > morphonology[3]
  • coercitive (obsolete spelling) > coercive[4]
  • mono nomial > monomial
  • urine analysis > urinalysis
  • Colloquial (non-standard and eye dialect spellings signalled by *):
    • library (RP: /ˈlaɪbrərɪ/) > *libry /ˈlaɪbrɪ/
    • particularly > *particuly
    • probably > *probly
    • February > *Febury
    • representative > * representive
    • authoritative > * authoritive
• Latin:
  • nutritrix > nutrix 'nurse'
  • idololatria > idolatria (hence idolatry)
• Biological Latin:
  • Hamamelididae (disallowed spelling: Hamamelidae)
  • Nycterididae > Nycteridae[5]
  • Anomalocaridid > Anomalocarid
• Homeric Greek: amphiphoreus (ἀμφιφορεύς) > amphoreus (ἀμφορεύς) 'two-handled pitcher, amphora'[6]
• Arabic:
  • tataqātalūna (تَتَقَاتَلُونَ) > taqātalūna (تَقَاتَلُونَ) 'you are fighting each other'[7]
  • *ʾaʾkulu (*أَأْكُلُ) > ʾākulu (آكُلُ) 'I eat'
• Spanish: impudicicia > impudicia 'lack of modesty' (i.e. the nominal form of impúdico, "immodest")[8]

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" ('two, 2') and "sê" ('three, 3') undergo a dittological process when used in counting:

• du > didu
• sê > sisê

See also

• Haplography
• Dissimilation

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. Oxford English Dictionary (online version ed.). November 2010.
5. "Mammal Species of the World - Browse: Nycteridae". bucknell.edu. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
6. Hock, Hans Henrich (1986). "Sound change: Dissimilation, haplology, metathesis". Principles of Historical Linguistics. De Gruyter. p. 109. ISBN 3-11-010600-0.
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.