Haplology (from Greek ἁπλόος haplóos "simple" and λόγος lógos, "speech") is, in spoken language, the elision (elimination or deletion) of an entire syllable through dissimilation (a differentiating shift that affects two neighboring similar sounds). 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')
• French: fémininité → féminité ('femininity')
• English:
  • Old English Engla land → Engle lond → England ^[1]
  • morphophonology → morphonology^[3]
  • mono nomial → monomial
  • urine analysis → urinalysis
  • Colloquial (non-standard and eye dialect spellings signalled by *):
    • library (RP: /ˈlaɪbrəri/) → *libry /ˈlaɪbri/
    • 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^[4]
  • Anomalocaridid → Anomalocarid
• Homeric Greek: amphiphoreus (ἀμφιφορεύς) → amphoreus (ἀμφορεύς) 'two-handled pitcher, amphora'^[5]
• Arabic:
  • tataqātalūna (تَتَقَاتَلُونَ) → taqātalūna (تَقَاتَلُونَ) 'you are fighting each other'^[6]
  • * ʾaʾkulu (*أَأْكُلُ) → ʾākulu (آكُلُ) 'I eat'
• Spanish: impudicicia → impudicia 'lack of modesty' (i.e. the nominal form of impúdico, "immodest")^[7]

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