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'Metathesis' (pronounced "mə-'tæ-thə-sis") 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. What is sound before and after metathesis depends on assumption of language ancestry if protowords cannot be attested.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a historian and scholar in rhetoric living in 1st century BC Greece. He analysed classical texts and applied several revisions to make them sound more eloquent. One of the methods he used was re-writing documents on a mainly grammatical level: changing word and sentence orders would make texts more fluent and 'natural', he suggested. He called this way of re-writing ''metathesis''.
Metathesis is one of the most common types of speech errors.
The pronunciation of ''ask'' as 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:
★ for ''asterisk''
★ for ''cavalry''
★ for ''comfortable''
★ for ''foliage''
★ for ''introduce''
★ for ''integral''
★ for ''Israel''
★ for ''nuclear'' (see nucular)
★ for ''pretty''
★ for ''relevant''
★ for ''vegetable''
The 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.
★ et cetera
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 ''murciélago''
In 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).
See Montler (1986), Thompson & Thompson (1969) for more information.
In Hebrew the verb conjugation (''binyan'') '' (התפעל) 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 ''hi1ta22ē3''. Examples:
★ No metathesis: root ''lbš'' לבש = '' הִתְלַבֵּש ("he got dressed").
★ Voiceless alveolar fricative: root ''skl'' סכל = ''histakkēl'' הִסְתַּכֵּל ("he looked [at something]").
★ Voiceless postalveolar fricative: root ''šdl'' שדל = ''hištaddēl'' הִשְתַּדֵּל ("he made an effort").
★ Voiced alveolar fricative: root ''zqn'' זקן = ''hizdaqqēn'' הִזְדַּקֵּן ("he grew old"); with assimilation of the T of the conjugation.
★ Voiceless velarized alveolar fricative: root '' צלם = '' הִצְטַלֵּם ("he had a photograph of him taken"); with assimilation of the T of the conjugation.
From a comparative study of Dravidian vocabularies, one can observe that the retroflex consonants (ʈ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ, ɻ) and the liquids of the alveolar series (r, ɾ, l) do not occur initially in common Dravidian etyma, but Telugu has words with these consonants at the initial position. It was shown that the etyma underwent a metathesis in Telugu, when the root word originally consisted of an initial vowel followed by one of the above consonants. When this pattern is followed by a consonantal derivative, metathesis has occurred in the phonemes of the root-syllable with the doubling of the suffix consonant (if it had been single); when a vowel derivative follows, metathesis has occurred in the phonemes of the root syllable attended by a contraction of the vowels of root and (derivative) suffix syllables.[1] These statements and the resulting sequences of vowel contraction may be summed up as follows:
Type 1: V1C1-C² > C1V1-C²C²
Type 2: V1C1-V²- > C1V1-
Examples:
★ lē = lēta (young, tener) <
★ eɭa
★ rē = rēyi (night) <
★ ira
★ rōlu (mortar)<★ ural
Metathesized words that appear in Interlingua most often recover their original phoneme sequence. Thus, Spanish ''milagro'' 'miracle', ''peligro'' 'danger', and ''dentrífico'' 'dentifrice' become Interlingua ''miraculo'', ''periculo'', and ''dentifricio'', respectively. The unmetathesized form is typically more international, leading to its eligibility for Interlingua.
In ASL, several signs which have a pre-specified initial and final location can have the order of these two locations reversed in contexts which seem to be purely phonological. For example the sign DEAF, prototypically made with the '1' handshape making contact first with the cheek and then moving to contact the jaw (as in the sentence FATHER DEAF) can have these locations reversed if the preceding sign, when part of the same constituent, has a final location more proximal to the jaw (as in the sentence MOTHER DEAF). Both forms of the sign DEAF are acceptable to native signers. (This information has not been cited. Use with caution. Please, refer to ''Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction'' (1995, pp. 43-44), C. Valli & C. Lucas, Gallaudet University Press.)
★ In the ''Hollow Pursuits'' episode of , 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'..."
★ Spoonerism
★ Quantitative metathesis
★ Ohio State University Dept. of Linguistics Metathesis Page
★ Compare: 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- metathesis process
1. Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju ''Telugu Verbal Bases'' Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 8-120-82324-9 p. 51-52.
★ 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
Rhetorical metathesis
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a historian and scholar in rhetoric living in 1st century BC Greece. He analysed classical texts and applied several revisions to make them sound more eloquent. One of the methods he used was re-writing documents on a mainly grammatical level: changing word and sentence orders would make texts more fluent and 'natural', he suggested. He called this way of re-writing ''metathesis''.
Metathesis in English
Metathesis is one of the most common types of speech errors.
The pronunciation of ''ask'' as 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:
★ for ''asterisk''
★ for ''cavalry''
★ for ''comfortable''
★ for ''foliage''
★ for ''introduce''
★ for ''integral''
★ for ''Israel''
★ for ''nuclear'' (see nucular)
★ for ''pretty''
★ for ''relevant''
★ for ''vegetable''
The 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.
Metathesis in French
★ et cetera
Metathesis in Spanish
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 ''murciélago''
Metathesis in Navajo
In 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 ''-''').
Metathesis in Straits Saanich
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.
Metathesis in Hebrew
In Hebrew the verb conjugation (''binyan'') '' (התפעל) 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 ''hi1ta22ē3''. Examples:
★ No metathesis: root ''lbš'' לבש = '' הִתְלַבֵּש ("he got dressed").
★ Voiceless alveolar fricative: root ''skl'' סכל = ''histakkēl'' הִסְתַּכֵּל ("he looked [at something]").
★ Voiceless postalveolar fricative: root ''šdl'' שדל = ''hištaddēl'' הִשְתַּדֵּל ("he made an effort").
★ Voiced alveolar fricative: root ''zqn'' זקן = ''hizdaqqēn'' הִזְדַּקֵּן ("he grew old"); with assimilation of the T of the conjugation.
★ Voiceless velarized alveolar fricative: root '' צלם = '' הִצְטַלֵּם ("he had a photograph of him taken"); with assimilation of the T of the conjugation.
Metathesis in Telugu
From a comparative study of Dravidian vocabularies, one can observe that the retroflex consonants (ʈ, ɖ, ɳ, ɭ, ɻ) and the liquids of the alveolar series (r, ɾ, l) do not occur initially in common Dravidian etyma, but Telugu has words with these consonants at the initial position. It was shown that the etyma underwent a metathesis in Telugu, when the root word originally consisted of an initial vowel followed by one of the above consonants. When this pattern is followed by a consonantal derivative, metathesis has occurred in the phonemes of the root-syllable with the doubling of the suffix consonant (if it had been single); when a vowel derivative follows, metathesis has occurred in the phonemes of the root syllable attended by a contraction of the vowels of root and (derivative) suffix syllables.[1] These statements and the resulting sequences of vowel contraction may be summed up as follows:
Type 1: V1C1-C² > C1V1-C²C²
Type 2: V1C1-V²- > C1V1-
Examples:
★ lē = lēta (young, tener) <
★ eɭa
★ rē = rēyi (night) <
★ ira
★ rōlu (mortar)<
Metathesis and Interlingua
Metathesized words that appear in Interlingua most often recover their original phoneme sequence. Thus, Spanish ''milagro'' 'miracle', ''peligro'' 'danger', and ''dentrífico'' 'dentifrice' become Interlingua ''miraculo'', ''periculo'', and ''dentifricio'', respectively. The unmetathesized form is typically more international, leading to its eligibility for Interlingua.
Metathesis in American Sign Language
In ASL, several signs which have a pre-specified initial and final location can have the order of these two locations reversed in contexts which seem to be purely phonological. For example the sign DEAF, prototypically made with the '1' handshape making contact first with the cheek and then moving to contact the jaw (as in the sentence FATHER DEAF) can have these locations reversed if the preceding sign, when part of the same constituent, has a final location more proximal to the jaw (as in the sentence MOTHER DEAF). Both forms of the sign DEAF are acceptable to native signers. (This information has not been cited. Use with caution. Please, refer to ''Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction'' (1995, pp. 43-44), C. Valli & C. Lucas, Gallaudet University Press.)
Examples in Popular Culture
★ In the ''Hollow Pursuits'' episode of , 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'..."
See also
★ Spoonerism
★ Quantitative metathesis
External links
★ Ohio State University Dept. of Linguistics Metathesis Page
★ Compare: 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- metathesis process
Bibliography
1. Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju ''Telugu Verbal Bases'' Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 8-120-82324-9 p. 51-52.
★ 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
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psst.. try this: add to faves
