Haplology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.
[1]
Linguists sometimes
jokingly refer to the phenomenon as "haplogy" (subjecting the word "haplology" to haplology).


haplology
noun \ha-pl-l-j\
Definition of HAPLOLOGY
: contraction of a word by omission of one or more similar sounds or syllables (as
in mineralogy for hypotheticalmineralology or \pr-bl\ for probably)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haplology

haplology (h p-l l -j )
n.
The loss of one of two identical or similar adjacent syllables in a word, as in Latin n tr x, "nurse," from earlier *n
tr tr x.

[Greek haplous, single, simple; see haploid + -logy.]

haplology [hplld]
n
(Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) omission of a repeated occurrence of a sound or syllable in fluent speech,
as for example in the pronunciation of library as (labr)
haplologic [hplldk] adj

haplology (hpll di)

n.
the omission of one of two similar adjacent syllables or sounds in a word, as in the pronunciation (prb
li) for probably.
[18901900]
hap`lologic (-lld k) adj.


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/haplology
Definition:
A sound change involving the loss of a syllable when it is next to a phonetically identical (or similar) syllable.
Haplology is a type of dissimilation. Perhaps the best known example is the reduction of Anglaland in Old
English to England inModern English.
The reverse process is known as dittology--the accidental or conventionalized repetition of a syllable.
(Dittologyalso means, more broadly, the double reading or interpretation of any text.)
The counterpart of haplology in writing is haplography--the accidental omission of a letter that should be
repeated (such as mispell for misspell)
See also:
What Is the Correct Pronunciation of "February"?
Assimilation
Dissimilation
Elision
Historical Linguistics
Lexical Diffusion
Metaplasm
Metathesis
Phonetics
Slip of the Tongue
Syncope
Etymology:
From the Greek, "simple, single." The term was coined by American linguist Maurice Bloomfield (American
Journal of Philology, 1896).
Examples and Observations:
"Haplology . . . is the name given to the change in which a repeated sequence of sounds is simplified to a single occurrence. For
example, if the word haplology were to undergo haplology (were to be haplologized), it would reduce the
sequence lolo to lo, haplology >haplogy. Some real examples are:
(1) Some varieties of English reduce library to 'libry' [laibri] and probably to 'probly' [prbli].
(2) pacifism < pacificism (contrast with mysticism < mysticism, where the repeated sequence is not reduced and does not end up
as mystism).
(3) English humbly was humblely in Chaucer's time, pronounced with three syllables, but has been reduced to two syllables (only
one l) in modern standard English.
(Lyle Campbell, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, 2nd ed. MIT Press, 2004)
"The words library and necessary, especially as spoken in Southern England, are often heard by foreigners as libry and nessary. But
when they repeat the words as such, they do not sound right, since there should be a lengthened r and s, respectively, in those words.
It shows that foreigners notice the beginning stages of haplology in those words, when there is as yet no complete haplology."
(Yuen Ren Chao, Language and Symbolic Systems. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1968)

"I have often noted that Americans, in speaking of the familiar Worcestershire sauce, commonly pronounce every syllable and
enunciate shire distinctly. In England it is alwaysWoostersh'r."
(H.L. Mencken, The American Language, 2nd ed. Alfred A. Knopf, 1921)




Why is important for the EFL students to know about the phonological processes?

If we take into account that the oral production is considered as the process of producing, receiving and
processing the information from a communicative and pragmatic point of view, we may comprehend the
influence it has over the knowledge and effective employment of the Phonological Processes, since they allow
the learners to increase their fluency while expressing their ideas, and consequently to improve the quality and
precision of their oral production.