Dissimilation

Dissimilation, in the context of phonology, is a phenomenon whereby similar consonant sounds in a word have a tendency to become different over time, so as to ease pronunciation.

For instance, in Latin, the word medidies ("noon", "middle of the day") gradually changed into meridies, allowing a more relaxed, flowing pronunciation.

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See also: Dissimilation, Consonant, Latin, Linguistics, Phonology, Word (linguistics)