cheshirization

English

WOTD – 26 November 2021

Etymology

From Cheshire (cat) (“fictional cat which disappeared leaving only its smile, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by the English author Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)”) +‎ -ization (suffix forming nouns denoting the act, process, or result of doing or making something), coined by the American linguist James Matisoff (born 1937) in a 1991 book chapter entitled “Areal and Universal Dimensions of Grammatization in Lahu”.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌt͡ʃɛʃəɹaɪˈzeɪʃən/, /-ɹə-/, /-ɹɪ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: che‧shir‧i‧zat‧ion

Noun

cheshirization (uncountable) (American spelling, Oxford British English)

1. (phonology, rare) Synonym of transphonologization (“a type of sound change whereby a phonemic contrast that used to involve a certain feature evolves in such a way that the contrast is preserved, yet becomes associated with a different feature”) [from 1991]

   Synonym: rephonologization

   • 2006, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Robert M. W. Dixon, Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance, →ISBN, page 344:

     For example, Mandarin uses the suffix ɚ < ér 兒 'son' while Cantonese employs tone sandhi, changing the citation tone to high rising tone, the cheshirization of an earlier segmental morpheme meaning 'son'.

Alternative forms

• cheshirisation (non-Oxford British spelling)
• Cheshirisation, Cheshirization

Translations

synonym of transphonologization — see transphonologization

Further reading

• transphonologization on Wikipedia.Wikipedia