Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The act or process of making or becoming dissimilar.
- noun Linguistics The process by which one of two similar or identical sounds in a word becomes less like the other, such as the l in English marble (from French marbre).
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act or process of rendering dissimilar or different.
- noun Specifically— In philology, the change or substitution or a sound to or for another and a different sound when otherwise two similar sounds would come together or very close to each other, as in Latin alienus for aliinus, Italian pelegrino from Latin peregrinus, English number (= German nummer) from Latin numerus, etc.
- noun In biology, catabolism (which see): opposed to assimilation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of making dissimilar.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The act of
dissimilating , of makingdissimilar . - noun phonology A phenomenon whereby similar
consonant orvowel sounds in a word become less similar, resulting in a form that is easier for the listener to perceive.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a linguistic process by which one of two similar sounds in a word becomes less like the other
- noun breakdown in living organisms of more complex substances into simpler ones together with release of energy
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It may be called dissimilation of a sort but this hardly explains it in itself.
Japanese dialect mirrors suspected PIE development of sibilantization between two dental stops 2009
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This process is called dissimilation, essentially getting rid of the similar parts.
podictionary - for word lovers - dictionary etymology, trivia & history 2009
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This process is called dissimilation, essentially getting rid of the similar parts.
podictionary - for word lovers - dictionary etymology, trivia & history 2009
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It's not enough just to use 'dissimilation' without a clear description of the process firmly grounded in phonetics and acoustics.
Japanese dialect mirrors suspected PIE development of sibilantization between two dental stops 2009
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To call this process 'dissimilation' requires you to first describe in scientific terms what the originally common feature might have been between dental plosives and high vowels, otherwise it cannot be classified as dissimilatory in nature.
Japanese dialect mirrors suspected PIE development of sibilantization between two dental stops 2009
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By "dissimilation" I was naturally referring to the IE change, not the Japanese to clarify, I thought you might have had an argument for the lost vowel to have been a close one.
Japanese dialect mirrors suspected PIE development of sibilantization between two dental stops 2009
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The initial *g was then lost due to dissimilation.
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Like Martin I too thought the different behaviour of your examples ‘hospital’ ‘orbital’ and ‘digital’ might be due to dissimilation, but the parallel with Italian ospedale vs orbitale and digitale, made me think it might be more likely to be because ‘hospital’ is of greater antiquity and familiarity than the other two, at least in their current main senses.
hospital ~ orbital ~ digital | Linguism | Language Blog 2010
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This is a great find and dissimilation on the Plein air to refined technique.
Plein Air and Poetry James Gurney 2009
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As a mechanism it isn't without problems, I admit: typically (in the examples I've seen, anyway) dissimilation leads to the substitution of another phoneme, not to the insertion of one (or the introduction of a new allophone).
Japanese dialect mirrors suspected PIE development of sibilantization between two dental stops 2009
Comments
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