sandhilike

Sandhilike is a term used in linguistics to describe phonological processes that resemble sandhi—changes at morpheme or word boundaries—without implying that the language has a canonical or well-documented sandhi system. The label is descriptive, indicating that boundary interactions produce surface changes similar to sandhi, even if the specific process does not fit traditional sandhi categories.

Common sandhilike effects include a range of boundary phenomena such as hiatus resolution through vowel coalescence or epenthesis, assimilation of adjacent segments across a boundary, deletion of a boundary consonant, or the insertion of a linking vowel to ease articulation. These changes may occur across word boundaries, between clitics and hosts, or at affix junctions in polysynthetic or contact languages. Sandhilike patterns can be language-specific or emerge through language contact, code-switching, or diachronic change.

In linguistic analysis, sandhilike is used to classify and compare boundary phenomena across languages, typologies, and models of morphophonology. It is particularly common in studies of contact phenomena, language change, and in the description of constructed languages where boundary rules produce sandhi-like outputs. Researchers may employ phonological, phonetic, or computational methods to characterize the conditions under which sandhilike effects arise and to distinguish them from established sandhi systems.

See also: sandhi, morphophonology, hiatus, epenthesis, assimilation.