Transphonologization
Cheshirisation is a term that has been coined as a joke by Matisoff. It goes back to the Cheshire Cat, a character in the book Alice in Wonderland, who has the ability to disappear. The last thing that remains visible is his smile. Although not an established scientific term, the word Cheshirisation can help to describe a linguistic phenomenon where the sound of part of a word is lost due to language change. However, before disappearing this sound triggers some phonetic changes in its vicinity or prevents them. These phonetic changes would be the Cheshire smile. Examples are the umlaut in Germanic languages (a lost i or j triggers fronting), initial mutations in Celtic (a lost vowel triggers lenition, a lost nasal triggers nasalisation) or Lahu (a lost consonant prevents sound change)
Bibliography
Matisoff, J. A. “Grammatization in Lahu” in: Approaches to Grammaticalization, ed. by Traugott and Heine. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1991
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