Learn English – the term for when a word begins with the previous word’s ending sound

phonology

What is the term for when a word begins with the same sound as the previous word's ending sound? For example, there are three instances of this in one line of the lyrics to For the First Time in Forever (Reprise) in the Frozen movie soundtrack, where Elsa sings:

Just stay away and you'll be safe from me.

  1. Just stay
  2. safe from
  3. from me

I don't think elision is the correct term, since all references I've found to elision show that letters are omitted when written, e.g., "going to" -> "gonna."

Best Answer

The term is called haplology. Where one sound is omitted and the words are pronounced together. Newspaper route becomes newspaperout, for example. Often times haplology refers to repeated sounds within a single word, but in English (and possibly some other languages) it happens with multiple words.

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