In historical linguistics and language contact, unpacking is the separation of the features of a segment into distinct segments.
This can be seen in English borrowings of French and Portuguese words, such as monsoon [mɒnˈsuːn] from Portuguese monção [mõsɐ̃ũ], but occurs widely, as in Lingala [balansi] from French [balɑ̃s] "balance".
Unpacking occurs not just in borrowings, but within a language over time.
For example, Armenian changed the Proto-Indo European syllabic resonants *m̥, *n̥, *r̥, and *l̥ into am, an, ar, and al, keeping the syllabic nature of the sound while preserving the consonant value.
Thus, the privative prefix *n̥- has changed into ան- an-, and the word *mr̥tos has become մարդ mard.