Metathesis (linguistics)

Metathesis ( gr μετάθεσις metathesis " transition " ) referred to in phonology a sound change, which consists in the conversion of a sound or the interchange of sounds within words. Thus, the metathesis is a phonological process (such as the assimilation ), which responds to phonotactic changes, which were in contrast to the epenthesis (insertion ) and the elision ( omission ) occurs rarely, as phonotactic problems solved rather by these two processes be.

Examples from Germanic languages

Examples of metathesis reactions can be found in etymologically related words and word forms. The Liquidae / l / and / R / are most commonly affected by the metathesis reaction, for example:

  • German Fountain, ndl. bron - West fries. boarne, nd Born
  • German breast, Eng. breast - ndl. bristle, bristle nd
  • German Christian, Christian - ndl. kerstmis, kerstenen, Karsten, nd Kerst, Kerstin, Kirsten
  • German village, nd Dörp, ndl. dorp - nd bot, Cas -, Finnish -, Frin, Hoen, Sut, Waltrop, ndl. Gel, Vlodrop
  • German frog, western fries. froask - ndl. kikvors, nd suggest and
  • German Frost, Eng. frost, western fries. froast - ndl. above
  • Ndl. godsvrucht, Eng. fright - fear German, Gothic faúrhtei
  • German Jakob - fries Jabik, Japik
  • German Needle, Eng. needle, western fries. niddel - ndl. naald
  • German press, engl. press - ndl. pers
  • German Ross, ndl. ros, swed. russ - engl. horse, western fries. hoars, norway. hors
  • German wart, Eng. waiting - ndl. wrat, nd Wratt
  • German burn, swed. Brinna - engl. burn nd, bernen
  • German thrash, Eng. thresh - ndl. dorsen, saterfries. täärske
  • Dt disconnect - ndl. tornen
  • Engl. wrestle - ndl. worstelen
  • Dt thirty, norway. Tretti, western fries. tritich - ndl. Dertig, Eng. thirty nd, dörtig
  • German fresh, Eng. fresh - ndl. verse
  • German factory, Eng. work - ndl. gewrocht, doorwrocht, Eng. wrought
  • Ger crack, ndl. most, Eng. burst - nd brassen
  • German Cross, norway. Nynorsk kross - norway. Bokmål kors
  • German wasp, ndl. wesp, Eng. wasp - ostösterr. Dialect Wepse ( n ), nd Wääps, Weeps, western fries. swaps, weps

Examples from the Romance languages

Very similar sporadic metathesis in cash and cash is also available in the Romance languages ​​:

  • Latin formaticum, it. French fromage formaggio →
  • German Roland → it. Orlando
  • German crocodile, Latin crocodilus → span cocodrilo, it. coccodrillo

In the following cases is probably more with the - per to calculate exchange between the prefixes per- and - certainly favored by the phonetic similarity:

  • German profile, it. profilo → span perfil
  • German perfume, French parfum → it. profumo

Typical for Spanish is the interchange of r and l over syllable boundaries:

  • Latin periculum → span peligro
  • Latin miraculum → Spanish: milagro
  • French Algérie, Algeria German → Spanish: Argelia

Also metathesis reactions with other sounds occur in Spanish:

  • Ukr Ukraine Corporation, dt Ukraine → span Ucrania
  • German Garland → span guirnalda

Liquidametathese in the Slavic languages

In the South and West Slavic languages ​​the Liquidametathese is a comprehensive, carried out in Späturslawischen sound change, by which all pre-Slavic connections * or * ol * he * el were switched between consonants and as ra, la, re, Lê ( in South Slavic, Czech and Slovak ) or ro, lo, re, le are represented ( in the other west Slavic languages):

  • German birch, urslaw. * berza - serbokroat. breza, poln brzoza, russ bereza
  • German milk, urslaw. * Melko - serbokroat. mlijeko, poln mleko, sorb. mloko
  • German Garden ( cf. Stuttgart), Latin hortus, Eng. yard ' Hof ', urslaw. * gordъ ' castle, town ', slowinz. gard (see Stargard ) - serbokroat. grad ( cf. Belgrade ), Czech: Hrad (see Hradcany ), kirchenslaw. grad ( cf. Russian Leningrad)
  • German Hirsch, urslaw. * Korva ' cow ' - Bulg krava, poln krowa

In the East Slavic languages ​​no metathesis took place here, but the word has been extended by one syllable ( so -called full volume ): cf russ bereza for birch, moloko milk, gorod (see Novgorod ), City ' for garden, korova, cow ' for deer.

A similar Liquidametathese it was under somewhat different conditions in all Slavic languages ​​even in initial position:

  • German work, urslaw. * orbota - Russian rabota, tschech. robota (see robots)
  • German arm, lat Armus ' upper arm, shoulder blade ', urslaw. * Orme ' shoulder ' - serbokroat. rame, poln ramię, tschech. Rame
  • German Elbe, Latin Albis - tschech. Labe, poln Łaba, obersorb. Łobjo, niedersorb. Łobje

Vokallängenmetathese in Greek

A metathesis not of different consonants, but vowel length is available in:

  • Homeric πόληος / POLEOS - Attic πόλεως / POLEOS
Etymology Liquid consonant Castrop Finnentrop Geldrop-Mierlo Gothic language Sorbian languages Syllable#Onset Attic Greek
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