Definition of "sandhi"

sandhi

/ˈsʌndi/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural sandhis
1. (phonology) Any of a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries, such as the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words.
  Quotations
  Mixed sandhi has two divisions, viz. when a word ending in a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a consonant, and when a word ending in a consonant is followed by a word beginning with a vowel. Cases of mixed sandhi are very few, and in the second division are limited to the changes of anusvâra before a vowel.
  1879, R. C. Childers, “On Sandhi in Pali”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series, Volume 11, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, page 101
  The rules on sandhi in Pâli may be divided into rules on vowel-sandhi, and rules on mixed sandhi where a vowel and a consonant are concerned. Consonantal sandhi does not occur in Pâli.
  1884, Edward Müller, A Simplified Grammar of the Pali Language, Trübner & Co., page 59
  2017, Hanbo Yan, The Nature of Variation in Tone Sandhi Patterns of Shanghai and Wuxi Wu, Springer