Haplology. Surely that's a new word for most people, isn't it? Well know that behind this strange word lies a very interesting grammatical concept! How about getting to know one more curiosity about the Portuguese language?
Haplology is a kind of syncope, which is nothing more than one of the metaplasms by suppression of phonemes. Got confused? Don't know what a metaplasm is? Look at just a few haplology examples that will help you understand better:
1. The pieces tragicomic were born in Ancient Greece. (tragic + comic = tragicocomic → tragicomic)
2. the teacher was kindness with the children. (kindness + oso = kindness → kindness)
3. the idosos did physical activities in the square. (age + bone = elderly → elderly)
4. It can leave that we will solve all the problems! (you can leave → [dust' leave])
In the four examples presented, the same or very similar syllables were suppressed to avoid a cacophate (considered a language addiction) and facilitate the pronunciation of a word. In the last example (you can leave
→ [dust' leave]), we have a very common occurrence in the Portuguese language, especially when the subject is the oral modality. Sometimes, to facilitate the Communication and giving dynamism to our verbal interactions, we ended up using haplology unconsciously, suppressing phonemes so that we could speak more quickly.Haplology proves that the language is in constant movement and subject to several changes throughout history. It is a phonetic-morphological phenomenon. This term, which could also have been changed to haplogy (not because it is a term, therefore, little used in our daily lives) it is of Greek origin, and haplo, in Greek, means simple. Did you see? A different and complicated word that aims to make our life easier!
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters