Dissimilation

Dissimilation is a linguistic process where similar sounds within a word become less alike to make pronunciation easier or to distinguish words. For example, in some English dialects, the word "fifths" might be pronounced as "fifths" with a different sound to reduce repetition. Dissimilation helps speakers avoid repeating similar sounds closely together, improving clarity and ease of speech. It often occurs naturally over time in language evolution or informally in speech to make words easier to say.