Dephonemicizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of removing phonemic distinctions from speech or text, thereby simplifying or neutralizing differences in pronunciation that typically distinguish meaning; altering linguistic forms to eliminate contrasts based on sound units; modifying speech sounds to make them phonetically uniform
2. Transforming language by erasing phoneme-based contrasts so that distinct sounds lose their role in differentiating words; adjusting phonological structures to merge separate sounds into a single equivalent; producing speech where traditional sound categories are disregarded
3. Changing spoken or written language to obscure or remove the distinctions between phonemes, causing previously meaningful sound differences to become indistinct; reworking pronunciation patterns to collapse separate phonemes into one; neutralizing sound contrasts that normally distinguish linguistic elements

Etymology: "Dephonemicizing" is a technical linguistics coinage built from "phoneme," which was itself introduced into the language in the 1870s by the French linguist Baudouin de Courtenay and his associates, based on the Greek "phōnēma," meaning "sound" or "utterance." The root of "phōnēma" is "phōnein," "to speak or sound," and it is related to "phōnē," "voice." "Phoneme" was adopted into English as a term for the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another, so that "bat" and "pat" differ by a single phoneme. The verb is built by adding a series of suffixes to that base. "De-" reverses or removes, "-ize" (through "-izing") turns a noun into a verb meaning to make or cause something, and "-ic" in the middle makes an adjective "phonemic," relating to phonemes. So "phonemicize" means to make something phonemic, and "dephonemicize" means the reverse: to strip out or collapse phonemic distinctions. The word is a modern scholarly formation, not a term found in classical or older English usage.