Deassimilation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process by which similar sounds in a word become more alike to each other or lose their distinguishing features ; a phonological change where different speech sounds grow more similar or merge ; the linguistic phenomenon involving the reduction of dissimilarity between adjacent or related phonemes
2. A change in speech where distinct sounds become more uniform or less differentiated ; a speech modification resulting in adjacent sounds resembling each other more closely ; a linguistic transition causing originally varied sounds to take on more comparable traits
3. The alteration in pronunciation that causes originally different sounds to become more alike ; a phonetic adjustment diminishing the differences between neighboring sounds ; the phenomenon in language where sounds converge towards a more similar articulation or form

Etymology: "Deassimilation" is built from the prefix "de-," which signals reversal or undoing, and "assimilation," from Latin "assimilare," "to make like," formed from "ad-" plus "similis," "similar." Linguists use assimilation for sounds that grow alike, so a term built on "de-" would ordinarily name the opposite process. That opposite is usually called dissimilation, where neighboring similar sounds become less alike. A well-known example is Latin "peregrinus," "foreigner," which became English "pilgrim" after its two r-sounds shifted to r and l. The supplied definition describes assimilation rather than its reversal, so the meaning and the form don't match.

Synonyms: phonetic change, sound change, linguistic change

Antonyms: assimilation, phonetic assimilation