A formal merging or two or more monemes, I call an amalgam: 'he cut', as contrasted with 'he admitted', can be said to be an amalgam and to result from amalgamation. Fr. 'au', in 'au marché', as contrast with 'à l’' in 'à l’hôpital', is also an amalgam. We may also, if we choose, call 'sang', the preterit of the verb 'to sing', an amalgam, although it is not likely to have resulted from a process of amalgamation […].
- Martinet (1962), a pag.46