Definition & Meaning of "phonetic erosion"

What is "phonetic erosion"?

Phonetic erosion is a linguistic process where the sounds of words become simplified or weakened over time, often resulting in changes to their pronunciation. This can involve the reduction of vowel sounds, the dropping of consonants, or the alteration of syllable structures. For example, the phrase "going to" is often pronounced as "gonna" in casual speech, demonstrating phonetic erosion through the blending and shortening of sounds. Phonetic erosion typically occurs in spoken language as speakers seek efficiency and ease of articulation, leading to more rapid and fluid speech patterns. This process is common in many languages and contributes to the natural evolution of pronunciation over time.