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The process in which one sound becomes more like a nearby sound is called assimilation. In assimilation mostly one sound changes but what is the process in which two sounds are changed? Consider the following example from Persian:
masjed- مسجد changes to masĉed and then changes to maĉĉed - مچد
meaning: Mosque
This process, I presume, is called همگونی دوسویه which loosely translates into bidirectional assimilation.
In general when does it happen? And how should we detect them?
I don't know of a standard term. I'd refer to it as mutual assimilation. The change in Sanskrit of ai to ee = e: is an example. So far as I know, there's nothing special about it, as compared with other assimilations, except that it's, well, mutual.
"Bidirectional assimilation" is an unlikely name for that kind of case, which constitutes "gemination" or "geminate formation". "Bidirectional assimilation" is generally used for the assimilation of a property which both affects a segment on the left and a segment on the right. ATR and nasal harmonies are the canonical examples, where e.g. /wemao/ → [w̃ẽmãõ].
When the result of combining two distinct adjacent segments is a single long segment, we usually refer to the process as merger or fusion, possibly adding a form of the word "geminate" to indicate that the result is a geminate consonant (for instance, /hy/ → [ʃʃ]). In the specific example you give, no feature is contributed by /s/, and /tʃ/ doesn't become in any way "more like" the deleted /s/. You might encounter a case that could be called reciprocal assimilation, where in a sequence of segments /AB/, A takes some property from B and B takes some property from A, and the result is surface DE (not a geminate). The most common case of that kind involves progressive post-nasal voicing, and regressive place assimilation, whereby /mk/ → [ŋg]. However, this is not "a bidirectional assimilation", it is two assimilations, one regressive and the other progressive.
reciprocal assimilation I didn't know the term. well about the case I mentioned /masjed/ has two processes it first becomes /masĉed/ and then the /s/ sound turns into /ĉ/ which gives: /maĉĉed/ There are two processes similar to both gemination and reciprocal assimilation what is the deal with this word?!
Mar 8 '16 at 17:02
