compensatory lengthening

In PHONOLOGY, an effect in which the DELETION of one SEGMENT is accompanied by an increase in the LENGTH of another, usually adjacent to it, thus preserving SYLLABLE weight. Typically, a VOWEL is lengthened when a syllable-final segment is lost, as in Old English ‘goose’, which comes from Germanic gans through the loss of the NASAL and the lengthening of the preceding vowel. The phenomenon is of importance in phonological theories which recognize the role of syllabic weight (such as AUTOSEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY).