Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of
phonemes in a
word. The most common instance of metathesis is the reversal of the order of two adjacent phonemes. Many languages have words that show this phenomenon, and some use it as a regular part of their grammar (e.g.
Fur). The process of metathesis has altered the shape of many familiar words in the
English language, too. Metathesis is one of the most common types of
speech errors. In
chemistry,
metathesis refers to a
reaction where parts of two reactants "switch places".
The use of
ax for
ask goes back to
Old English days, when
ascian and
axian/acsian were both in use. Some other frequently heard pronunciations in English that display metathesis are:
*
ax for
ask*
asterix for
asterisk*
Calvary for
cavalry*
comfterble for
comfortable*
foilage for
foliage*
interduce for
introduce*
intregal for
integral*
nucular for
nuclear*
purty for
pretty*
realator for
realtor*
revelant for
relevant*
stragety for
strategyThe process has shaped many English words historically.
Bird in English was once
bryd,
run was once
irnan,
horse was
hros,
wasp is also recorded as
wæps and
hasp,
hæps. The discrepancy between the spelling of
iron and the usual pronunciation is the result of metathesis.
Examples in Popular Culture
*In the
Hollow Pursuits episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation,
Lt. Commander Data explains the meaning of metathesis after
Captain Picard mistakenly calls
Lt. Barclay "Mr. Broccoli". After Barclay leaves, Data says to the captain, "metathesis is one of the most common of pronunciation errors, sir; a reversal of vowel and consonant; 'barc' to broc'..."
Old
Spanish showed occasional metathesis when phonemes not conforming to the usual euphonic constraints were joined. This happened, for example, when a
clitic pronoun was attached to a verb ending: it is attested that forms like
dejadle "leave him" were often metathesized to
dejalde (the phoneme cluster /dl/ is not allowed anywhere else in Spanish).
Milagro "miracle" is a metathesized derivation from Latin
miraculum, which also shows typical intervocalic
voicing and
syncope.
Lunfardo, an
argot of Spanish from
Buenos Aires, is fond of
vesre, a form of intentional metathesis that involves changes in the order of whole syllables as well as individual phonemes (
vesre is the inverted form of
revés "back, backwards").
Gacería, an argot of
Castile, also incorporates words formed through metathesis (
brica for "criba", for example).
Some frequently heard pronunciations in Spanish that display metathesis are:
*
calcamonía for
calcomanía*
dentrífico for
dentífrico*
murciégalo for
murciélagoIn
Navajo, verbs have (often multiple) morphemes prefixes onto the verb stem. These prefixes are added to the verb stem in a set order in a prefix positional template. Although prefixes are generally found in a specific position, some prefixes change order by the process of metathesis.
For example, prefix
a-
(3i object pronoun) usually occurs before di-
, as in
adisbąąs
'I'm starting to drive some kind of wheeled vehicle along' [ < 'a- + di- + sh- + ł + -bąąs].
However, when a- occurs with the prefixes
di- and
ni-, the
a-
metathesizes with di-
, leading to an order of di-
+ a- +
ni-, as in
di'nisbąąs 'I'm in the act of driving some vehicle (into something) & getting stuck' [ <
di-'a-ni-sh-ł-bąąs <
'a- +
di- +
ni- +
sh- +
ł +
-bąąs]
instead of the expected *
adinisbąąs (
a-di-ni-sh-ł-bąąs) (note also that a- is reduced to
-
').
In
Straits Saanich metathesis is used as a grammatical device to indicate "actual"
aspect. The actual aspect is most often translated into English as a
be ... -ing progressive. The actual aspect is derived from the "nonactual" verb form by a CV ' VC metathesis process (i.e. consonant metathesizes with vowel).
| T̵X̱ÉT 'shove' (nonactual) | ' | T̵ÉX̱T 'shoving' (actual) |
| ṮPÉX̱ 'scatter' (nonactual) | ' | ṮÉPX̱ 'scattering' (actual) |
| T̸L̵ÉQ 'pinch' (nonactual) | ' | T̸ÉL̵Q 'pinching' (actual) |
See Montler (1986), Thompson & Thompson (1969) for more information.
In
Hebrew the verb conjugation (
binyan)
' ("תפעל) undergoes metathesis if the first consonant of the root is an alveolar or postalveolar fricative. Namely, the pattern ' (where the numbers signify the root consonants) becomes
hi1ta22"3. Examples:
* No metathesis: root
lbš לבש =
' "ִתְלַבֵּש ("he got dressed").
* Voiceless alveolar fricative: root skl סכל = histakk"l "ִסְתַּכֵּל ("he looked [at something]").
* Voiceless postalveolar fricative: root šdl ש"ל = hištadd"l "ִשְתַּ"ֵּל ("he made an effort").
* Voiced alveolar fricative: root zqn זקן = hizdaqq"n "ִזְ"ַּקֵּן ("he grew old"); with assimilation of the T of the conjugation.
* Voiceless velarized alveolar fricative: root ' צלם =
"ִצְטַלֵּם ("he had a photograph of him taken"); with assimilation of the T of the conjugation.
*
Spoonerism*
Quantitative metathesis*
Ohio State University Dept. of Linguistics Metathesis Page* Montler, Timothy. (1986).
An outline of the morphology and phonology of Saanich, North Straits Salish. Occasional Papers in Linguistics (No. 4). Missoula, MT: University of Montana Linguistics Laboratory. (Revised version of the author's PhD dissertation, University of Hawaii).
* Thompson, Laurence C.; & Thompson, M. Terry. (1969). Metathesis as a grammatical device.
International Journal of American Linguistics,
35, 213-219.
* Young, Robert W., & Morgan, William, Sr. (1987).
The Navajo language: A grammar and colloquial dictionary, (rev. ed.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1014-1
