Cheshirization

Cheshirization, or cheshirisation, is a type of sound change where a trace remains of a sound that has otherwise disappeared from a word. The term was coined by James Matisoff and is a neologism, i.e. it is not an established scientific term. It is used here to refer to a process that is real but so far has no generally accepted name. The term rephonologization has sometimes been used to refer to this process; see below.