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OK, I was just getting used to "embedded caps" (aka CamelCase) and recently started noticing a new (?) typographic device that uses the same letter twice for two joined words. Example: FUTURENERGY. See: http://www.futurenergy.co.uk/
I've seen a couple other examples, some of which capitalize or color the repeated letter to make it stand out.
Is there a term for this, other than "artistic license?" In a way, it's clever, but it doesn't always translate to other media.
Since these are both vowels, one possible term for this is synalepha, a type of metaplasm. While synalepha most commonly refers to the syllabic pronunciation of two adjacent words, it is also used to refer to orthographic changes in the same context: "the suppression of a vowel at the end of word when it is followed by another word beginning with a vowel."
In general, I would classify this as a metaplasm.
I think this breaks my record for the most new words learned in a single thread.
Of course, I had to do a search for metaplasm (new word). Wiki has a good page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaplasm. Once there, I picked up several more new words.
I would agree that metaplasm is a good term for this type of orthography-play. Not so sure about synalepha though. According to Wiki that's when "two syllables become one," and I'm guessing that FUTURENERGY is pronounced as "future energy," so that the two syllables remain intact and are pronounced as if they were still separate. And so I will refer to this simply as a metaplasm. Thanks.
Interestingly, another new word (actually a new meaning for a word I thought I knew) was hiatus: distinct pronunciation of two adjacent vowels. There is a constellation named Boötes, which many novice astronomers pronounce as "boots" (until they hear it pronounced correctly). Now, when I correct them, I'll be able to explain how this is an example of a hiatus, and sound even smarter than I pretend to be.
[Edit: light bulb goes on ... just realized that "hiatus" is a hiatus.]
I agree with Heimhenge; I've never learned so many new words in one post. Thanks, Glenn.
I think words that English stole directly from foreign languages without adapting them are the best candidates for these types of words. The one that immediately came to mind was naive (sorry, I don't the way to code the umlaut over the i).
That said, the original post was about a branded name, which is, of course, different from accepted English words. I recall numerous company names that use this kind of metaplasm (again, thanks, Glenn, for the new word), but I can't think of specific examples at the moment.
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