| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| chirren |
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| SYLLABICATION: | chir·ren |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  ch r  n |
| PLURAL NOUN: | Chiefly Southern U.S. Children. | | REGIONAL NOTE: | The linguistic process of ellipsis allows for the deletion within words of some internal sounds, such as weakly stressed syllables and less prominent consonants. This process caused Old English heafod ultimately to become Modern English head, losing its internal (v) sound (spelled f in Old English). Ellipsis is still an active process in American regional dialects. For example, in chirren both the (l) and the (d) of children are omitted in favor of the more conspicuous (r).
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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