In
phonology, particularly within
historical linguistics,
dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar
consonants or
vowels in a
word become less similar. For example, when a sound occurs before another in the middle of a word in
rhotic dialects of English, the first tends to drop out, as in "beserk" for
berserk, "supprise" for
surprise, "paticular" for
particular, and "govenor" for
governor – this does not affect the pronunciation of
government, which has only one , but English
government tends to be pronounced "goverment", dropping out the first n.