sandhi

This term is a specialized linguistic concept primarily used in the study of Indo-Aryan languages, particularly Sanskrit. It describes the phonetic modification of sounds at the boundaries of words or morphemes to facilitate smoother pronunciation, effectively blending the end of one word into the beginning of the next.

In a technical context, it is treated as a mass noun referring to the phenomenon of sound change. While it can be used to describe specific instances of these changes, it is rarely pluralized in academic literature, as it refers to the systemic rule or process rather than a countable object.