Haplology (from Greek ἁπλόος haplóos "simple" and λόγος lógos, "speech") is, in spoken language, the elision (elimination or deletion) of an entire syllable or a part of it 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); this is a productive pattern applied to other words ending in (spelt) -erer.
• Dutch: narcissisme → narcisme ('narcissism')
• French: fémininité → féminité ('femininity')
• English:
  • Old English Engla land → Engle lond → England ^[1]
  • morphophonology → morphonology^[3]
  • conservativism → conservatism
  • mononomial → monomial
  • urine analysis → urinalysis
  • Colloquial (non-standard and eye dialect spellings signalled by *):
    • library (RP: /ˈlaɪbrəri/) → *libry /ˈlaɪbri/
    • particularly → *particuly
    • probably → *probly
    • February → *Febury or *Febr(u)y (compare e.g. Austrian German Feber)
    • representative → *representive
    • authoritative → *authoritive
    • deteriorate → *deteriate
• 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]
• Portuguese:
  • idadoso → idoso (aged person, senior)
  • femininismo → feminismo (feminism)
  • Coloquially in sequences like campo pequeno pronounced like "campequeno" or faculdade de letras pronounced like "faculdadletras".
• Italian:
  • tragico-comico → tragicomico ('tragicomic')
  • domani mattina → domattina ('tomorrow morning')

Reduplication

The reverse process is known as reduplication, the doubling of phonological material.