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Encyclopedia > 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. What is sound before and after metathesis depends on assumption of language ancestry if protowords cannot be attested. Sound change or phonetic change is a historical process of language change consisting in the replacement of one speech sound or, more generally, one phonetic feature by another in a given phonological environment. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... The Fur language (Fur bèle fòòr or fòòraŋ bèle, Arabic فوراوي Fûrâwî; sometimes called Konjara by linguists, after a former ruling clan) is the language of the Fur of Darfur in western Sudan. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

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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. Dionysius Halicarnassensis (of Halicarnassus), Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, flourished during the reign of Augustus. ... Rhetoric (from Greek , rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of spoken and written language; however, this definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in universities. ... Elocutio is the term for the mastery of stylistic elements in Western classical rhetoric and comes from the Latin loqui, to speak. Although today, we associate the word, elocution, more with eloquent speaking, for the classical rhetorician, it connoted style. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric... For the surname, see Grammer. ...


Metathesis in English

Metathesis is one of the most common types of speech errors. The pronunciation of ask as /æks/ 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: Naturally, children are prone to blatant and often comical speech errors. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ...

  • /ˈæstɚˌɪks/ for asterisk
  • /ˈkælvəɹi/ for cavalry
  • /ˈkʌmftɚbl̩/ for comfortable
  • /ˈfɔɪlɪdʒ/ for foliage
  • /ˈɪntɚˌdus/ for introduce
  • /ˈɪntɹəgl̩/ for integral
  • /ˈzɹeɪl/ for Israel
  • /ˈnukjəlɚ/ for nuclear (see nucular)
  • /ˈpɝti/ for pretty
  • /ˈɹɛvələnt/ for relevant
  • /ˈvɛtʃtɪbl̩/ 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. This article refers to the typographical symbol. ... French Republican Guard - May 8, 2005 celebrations Cavalry (from French cavalerie) were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat. ... “Foliage” redirects here. ... In calculus, the integral of a function is an extension of the concept of a sum. ... The word nuclear means of or belonging to the nucleus of something. ... Nucular is a metathesis of the word nuclear which represents the commonplace NEW-cue-lerr ( IPA ) mispronunciation of that word instead of NEW-clear ( IPA or ); in other words, the pronunciation which rhymes not with likelier, but with ocular. This pronunciation is disapproved of by some who consider it a... A plate of vegetables Vegetable is a culinary term which generally refers to an edible part of a plant. ...


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. In linguistics, a clitic is an element that has some of the properties of an independent word and some more typical of a bound morpheme. ... In phonetics, phonation is the use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...


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). Lunfardo was a colorful, slangy argot of the Spanish language which developed at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century in the lower classes in and around Buenos Aires. ... Argot (French for slang) is primarily slang used by various groups, including but not limited to thieves and other criminals, to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. ... For other uses, see Buenos Aires (disambiguation). ... Vesre (reversing the order of syllables within a word) is one of the features of the Rioplatense Spanish. ... Gacería (Basque for nonsense, cleverness[1]) is the name of a jerga or argot employed by the trilleros (or makers of the trillo, or harrow) and the briqueros (or makers of the brica, or sieve) in the village of Cantalejo, in the Spanish province of Segovia. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ...


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. Reading Adahooniigii — The Navajo Language Monthly Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken...


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). Saanich (also , written as SENĆOŦEN in Saanich orthography) is the language of the Saanich peoples. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ...

     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) hiṯpaʿʿēl (התפעל) undergoes metathesis if the first consonant of the root is an alveolar or postalveolar fricative. Namely, the pattern hiṯ1a22ē3 (where the numbers signify the root consonants) becomes hi1ta22ē3. Examples: “Hebrew” redirects here. ...

  • No metathesis: root lbš לבש = hiṯlabbēš 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 ṣlm צלם = hiṣṭallēm 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: The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages[1] that are mainly spoken in southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran, and overseas in other countries such... Telugu (తెలుగు) is a Dravidian language primarily spoken in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where it is the official language. ...


Type 1: V1C1-C2 > C1V1-C2C2


Type 2: V1C1-V2- > C1V1-


Examples:

  • lē = lēta (young, tener) < *eɭa
  • rē = rēyi (night) < *ira
  • rōlu (mortar)< <oral < *ural

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. Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Interlingua vocabulary. ...


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. American Sign Language (ASL; less commonly Ameslan) is the dominant sign language of the Deaf community in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in parts of Mexico. ... Constituent as used in syntactic analysis refers to a word or a group of words that function together as a unit and are embedded into a hierarchical structure. ...


Examples in Popular Culture

Hollow Pursuits is a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode primarily centered around Reginald Barclays addiction to the holodeck. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Data,[1] portrayed by Brent Spiner, is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe. ... Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, is a character in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... Lieutenant Reginald Endicott Barclay III is a recurring character in the Star Trek fictional universe, created by Sally Caves and played by Dwight Schultz. ...

See also

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Quantitative metathesis (also metathesis of quantity) is a technical phonological term which refers to a situation in which two vowel sounds follow directly one after the other — one being long and the other short — and a transposition of vowel length takes place, such that the formerly-long vowel becomes short...

External links

  • Ohio State University Dept. of Linguistics Metathesis Page

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

  Results from FactBites:
 
Fun With Words: Glossary of Linguistics and Rhetoric (5265 words)
characteristic of an incorrect linguistic construction in which the error is produced from a mistaken effort to be correct.
linguistic process of a word gradually becoming more positive in meaning or connotation over time.
a meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a root word or a word element that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts.
NodeWorks - Encyclopedia: Metathesis (477 words)
Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word.
In Straits Saanich metathesis is used as a grammatical devise to indicate "actual" aspect.
Metathesis is used in chemistry as a synonym for a double displacement chemical reaction.
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