| Agglutination (noun) |
The attachment of an article or other part of speech to a word, as
in algebra, where al is the definite article in Arabic. |
| Aphesis (noun) |
Shrinkage of a word, as in fender, which was originally defender. |
| Assimilation (noun) |
The tendency of a sound to imitate its neighbor, e.g. ampersand
from and per se and. The m results from the p it precedes, both
being labial consonants. |
| Cognate (noun & adj.) |
Words in different languages in which one is derived from the other
or both share a common origin are said to be cognate. E.g. French main and
English manual, are cognate(s) as both derive from Latin manus, 'hand'. |
| Conflation
(noun) |
Combining
two words into one, such as brunch. See also portmanteau. |
| Contamination (noun) |
The transfer of meaning of one word to another unrelated word which
may be commonly associated with it, e.g. due to the phrase old geezer, the
American meaning of geezer has come to imply old, and the phrase bald
as a coot has made old implicit in the term coot (again, only in
American English). Note that in British English, neither geezer nor coot
has these connotations. |
| Dental (noun & adj.) |
A consonant pronounced while the tongue touches the
back if the upper incisor teeth, as in d
and t. The th
sound (tongue between the upper and lower incisors) is sometimes
called interdental. |
| Dissimilation (noun) |
The tendency of a sound to be replaced by another, and this
especially occurs with the consonants l, n and r, as in the
name Annabel dissimilating to Amabel, from which comes the name Mabel. |
| Doublet
(noun) |
Two words in the same language which derive from a common source,
eg. clerk and cleric. |
| Folk-etymology
(noun) |
An etymological phenomenon
by which a new word or phrase arises due to the misunderstanding of a
word or phrase. Often the resulting word is composed of familiar
parts, such as asparagus becoming sparrowgrass. |
| Fricative (noun & adj.) |
A
consonant that is pronounced with enough constriction of the
lips/teeth/mouth to produce friction, the friction being the chief
component of the sound,
as in f (unvoiced) and v (voiced). |
| Hobson-Jobson (noun) |
A foreign word or phrase which is converted into more familiar
form, e.g.the
famous old London pub The Elephant and Castle was originally La Infanta de
Castille . |
| Homonym
(noun) |
Words which have the same spelling but different meanings, such as saw
(past tense of see) and saw (the tool) are said to be homonyms. [see
also homophone] |
| Homophone
(noun) |
Words which have the same sound but different meanings, such as see
and sea are said to be homophones. [see also homonym] |
| Labial
(noun & adj.) |
A phoneme pronounced using the lips, as in p and m.
In labio-dental sounds, the upper
incisors and lower lip meet. Labio-velar
sounds occur when a sound is made at the velum (soft palate) and the
lips are rounded st the same time (w), |
| Macaronic
(adj.) |
A word or phrase made from components of two or more different
languages. |
| Metathesis
(noun) |
The transposition of two adjacent sounds. |
| Misdivision
(noun) |
The incorrect division of a noun phrase to create a new word.
Thus, an orange was originally a norange and a whole nuther
(whole inserted into another) could result in a new word - nuther.
|
| Onomatopoeia
(noun) |
The
formation of a name or word by an imitation of the sound associated
with the thing or action designated; this principle as a force in the
formation of words in a language; echoism. |
| Pleonasm
(noun) |
The repetition of meaning within a word, e.g. causeway,
where both cause and way mean 'road'. |
| Portmanteau
(noun and
adj.) |
A
word made up of the blended sounds of two distinct words and combining
the meanings of both, such as brunch. The term was first
applied by Lewis Carroll to this type of word genesis. |
| Reduplication
(noun) |
The repetition of sounds in a word, often with the alteration of a
phoneme, eg. hurly-burly, wishy-washy and flim-flam. |
| Spoonerism
(noun) |
The transposition of the initial portion of words in a phrase. This
process is named after William A. Spooner (1844-1930), warden of New College,
Oxford, who was most famous for this extended form of metathesis. One famous example is
his toast: "Let us drink to the queer old dean". He meant, of course: "Let
us drink to the dear old queen" |
| Spurious etymology
(noun phrase) |
An etymology which, despite its popularity, wide distribution or
apparent logic, is false. For instance, although it is commonly believed, posh
does not derive from port out, starboard home. |
| Unvoiced (adj.) |
Pronounced without vibrating the vocal cords, as the th-
in the word thistle. |
| Voiced (adj.) |
Pronounced with vocal cord vibration, as in the th- in the
word the. |
