Udi
- Language Family
- Northeast Caucasian
- Subgroup
- Lezgian
- Area
- —
Summary
In the verb morphology, a stop or affricate metathesizes with a fricative.
Metathesis occurs in a few borrowings, with different outcomes in different dialects.
Type(s) of metathesis
| Type | Status | Optionality | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. CC | Synchronic | Obligatory | Adjacent | Between root and suffix | |
| b. CC | Diachronic | Obligatory | Both | Root-internal |
Case types and qualities
-
- CC
-
- C1:
- Alveolar stop
- C1:
- Alveo-palatal affricate
- C2:
- Alveolar fricative
-
- CC
-
- C:
- Pharyngeal
- C1:
- Alveolar stop
- C2:
- Bilabial nasal
- V:
- Mid front
Examples
The following description is due to Timur Maisak, and reflects the Nizh dialect.
Besides assimilation [see Related], the clusters ds, ts, tːs also result in stː, and here we have metathesis. This happens in verb forms which include s-initial suffixes, namely the present tense -sa (PRS), the deverbal noun (masdar, MSD) -sun, or some case forms of the infinitive starting in -sV. Metathesis thus blurs the morpheme boundary.
(d-s)
*tad-sun [give-MSD] > tastːun (or tast'un [in the Vartashen dialect described by Harris and Schulze - see Bibliography])
(t-s)
*bart-sun [let-MSD] > barstːun
(tː-s)
*botː-sun [cut-MSD] > bostːun
In Nizh Udi, there is also a (dissimilative) change of clusters ss, zs, cs > stː, čs, šs > štː, e.g.:
*eneč-sa [bring.3SG-PRS] > eneštːa 's/he brings'
č is the affricate tʃ, so this arguably reflects a case of metathesis if the affricate is considered to be decomposed into two parts.
-tʃs- > -ʃtʃ or -stʃ-
The following examples are from Schulze's Udi Online Grammar, in section 2.4, with notes due to Timur Maisak.
eˤlˤem 'donkey' < *h.elem < *h.emel < h.ima:r (Arabic)
amdar (Udi, Nizh dialect) 'man, abs. sg.' < adam-ar (Arabic, pl.)
cf. adamar (Udi, Vartashen dialect) 'man, abs. sg.' < adam-ar (Arabic, pl.)
Conditions
Schulze (2002: 48ff) The presence of derivational and inflectional morphology yielding more than bisyllabic words can affect unstressed vowels.
The syncope of unstressed -e- produces CC clusters that are marked for a syllable boundary.
Motivations
Perceptual Enhancement (Hume 1997, 1998, 2000): Shifting the stop or affricate in metathesis from pre-consonantal position to postvocalic position enhances the perceptibility of the consonant given the presence of the vowel transition .
Symbols
Comments
Metathesis examples in loanwords are not considered in filling in place and manner of metathesized consonants. Metathesis patterns are similar to Faroese and Lithuanian cases. So, I put the motivation based on the account of these cases.
Bibliography
- Harris, Alice C. 2000. Where in the word is the Udi clitic? Language 76, 3. 593-616.
- Schulze, Wolfgang. 2001. An online grammar of Udi. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen. http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wschulze/udiphon.htm
- Schulze, Wolfgang. 2002. The sound system of Udi. Chapter 2 of unpublished ms.
- Майсак Т. А. Глагольная парадигма удинского языка (ниджский диалект) // Алексеев М. Е., Майсак Т. А. (отв. ред.) Удинский сборник: грамматика, лексика, история языка. М.: Academia, 2008. С. 96—161.