dissimiler

A learned linguistics term, coined as the opposite of assimiler, for a sound changing to become less like a neighboring sound (dissimilation) — e.g., Latin peregrinus becoming French pèlerin, where one of two r sounds became l. Purely technical, used only in phonetics.

• Le latin peregrinus a dissimilé un r en l pour donner pèlerin. — Latin peregrinus dissimilated one r to l to give pèlerin.
• Ce processus dissimile les deux consonnes voisines. — This process dissimilates the two neighboring consonants.
• Les linguistes étudient comment certains sons se dissimilent. — Linguists study how certain sounds dissimilate.

This is technical linguistics vocabulary, not a word a learner will ever need to produce — recognizing it in a phonetics textbook is its only realistic use.

Often confused with assimiler.