I stumbled across the word 'epenthesis' today, and found it wonderfully descriptive of my 4-year old's speech patterns.

Epenthesis is defined by M-W as "the insertion or development of a sound or letter in the body of a word (as \&\ in \'a-th&-"lEt\ athlete)"

it would stand to reason that there'd be a term for the opposite phenomenon, such as Wens-day or - one of my pet peeves - 'Jewl-ry' (i won't even *mention* my annoyance at the further bastardization of jewelry, as in "jewlery"; i guess that'd be an epenthesis compounding the whatever-it-is-that-means-the-opposite-of-epenthesis... and come to think of it, is there a word for overuse of hyphenization? and please don't just say "annoying" )


bridget=)

Ipsa scientia potestas est ~Bacon

Bridget opined one of my pet peeves - 'Jewl-ry' (i won't even *mention* my annoyance at the further bastardization of jewelry, as in "jewlery

For many of us outside the US, "jewelry" is itself a bastardisation of the word we use "jewellery". Whatever the antonym of epenthesis is (ellision or contraction, perhaps), your "jewelry" may be considered a specimen thereof.

actually®, there is a more specific word applied to inserting a vowel sound (as in athelete): anaptyxis, or the anaptyctic(!) vowel. (epenthesis also applies to consonants, as in 'sherbert' for sherbet)

elision works, as does vowel deletion...

>i won't even *mention* my annoyance at the further bastardization of jewelry, as in "jewlery"

So "jewellery" is OK then? Are we allowed to carry on using the word?

is jewellery unique, then? you have not only the epenthesis of the extra 'l' but the anaptyctic 'e'.

is jewellery unique, then?

No it follows the same logic as one of your favourite words: travelling. Double to the "l" to add the suffix "ery".

In reply to:

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is jewellery unique, then?

No it follows the same logic as one of your favourite words: travelling. Double to the "l" to add the suffix "ery".

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travellery?? no, wait... ::slapping forehead with palm::
that's not what you meant...

gal >> gallery
distillery << distil

yeah, now I've got it!

>>a. Of the Eng. words ending in -ery many are adoptions from Fr., as battery, bravery, cutlery, nunnery, treachery. Many others are formed on ns. in -er, and are properly examples of the suffix -y; but in individual instances it is often uncertain whether a word was originally formed on an agent-noun in -er or directly on the verb. b. In modern, chiefly U.S., use, after bakery (= baker's shop or works), and similar words, this suffix has gained considerable currency in denoting ‘a place where an indicated article or service may be purchased or procured’, as beanery, bootery, boozery, breadery, cakery, carwashery, drillery, drinkery, eatery, hashery, lunchery, mendery, toggery, wiggery.

In many words this suffix has now the contracted form -ry, q.v.
-ry a reduced form of -ery, occurring chiefly after an unstressed syllable ending in d, t, l, n, or sh (the usual type being words of three syllables with the stress on the first), but also in a few cases after stressed vowels or diphthongs. The older examples sometimes represent OF. forms in -rie, with variants in -erie, but the great majority are comparatively late English formations. Examples of the various types are heraldry, husbandry, ribaldry, wizardry; casuistry, dentistry, harlotry, infantry, papistry, peasantry, tenantry; chivalry, devilry, rivalry; blazonry, yeomanry; Englishry, Irishry; avowry, Jewry. In some cases both -ery and -ry are in use, as baptist(e)ry, command(e)ry, jewel(le)ry.
<<

n.b. - once again we have an example of UK orthography with extra letters but the orthoepy then neglects them: "In commercial use commonly spelt jewellery; the form jewelry is more rhetorical and poetic, and unassociated with the jeweller. But the pronunciation with three syllables is usual even with the former spelling."

{latter quotes OED}

>yeah, now I've got it!

I knew that you'd get there in the end. As you you know, pronouncing a word as it is spelt is of very little interest to us across the pond!

tsuwm writes:

"once again we have an example of UK orthography with extra letters but the orthoepy then neglects them: "In commercial use commonly spelt jewellery; the form jewelry is more rhetorical and poetic, and unassociated with the jeweller. But the pronunciation with three syllables is usual even with the former spelling."

it occurs to me that perhaps 'jewellery' (or jewelery) is more appropriately descriptive of the *art* of crafting jewelry, not the pieces themselves. i note that m-w also lists 'jewelleries' as a variant of the british 'jewellery'... but wouldn't jewelleries be used more in reference to the places where jewelers practice their trade? this is all getting so confusing


bridget=)

Ipsa scientia potestas est ~Bacon

carwashery?

>carwashery?

Gesundheit