Metathesis in Language 2.0

Zoque

Language Family
Mixe-Zoquean
Subgroup
Zoque
Area
—

Summary

A palatal glide + consonant sequence, due to morpheme concatenation, is pronounced with the glide following the consonant.

A glottal stop and nasal or liquid reverse positions.

Type(s) of metathesis

Type Status Optionality Position Location
a. CC Synchronic Obligatory Adjacent Across morpheme boundaries
b. CC Synchronic Obligatory Adjacent Across morpheme boundaries

Case types and qualities

Examples

When /y/ precedes a consonant, the glide is realized after the consonant.

y-pata
pyata
‘his mat’
 
y-buro
byuro
‘his burro’
 
y-faha
fyaha
‘his belt’
 
y-mula
myula
‘his mule’
 
y-wakas
wyakas
‘his cow’
 

 

y-kama
kyama
‘his cornfield’
 
y-gayu
gyayu
‘his rooster’
 

 

y-ʔaci
ʔyaci
‘his older brother’
 
y-hayah
hyayah
‘her husband’
 


When the seuqence /yh/ precedes a bilabial consonant /p/, /m/ or velar consonant /k/, the glide is realized after the final consonant of the cluster.

kamayh ‘oak’ + -pʌ
kamahpyʌ
‘oaken’
 
kamayh ‘oak’ + moni ‘mushroom’
kamahmyoni
‘species of mushroom’
 
kamayh ‘oak’ + kuy ‘tree’
kamahkyuy
‘oak tree’
 

When a nasal or liquid precedes a glottal stop, the glottal stop surfaces before the consonant.

kom ‘post’ + -ʔaŋU
koʔmaŋʌ
‘to the post’
 
pʌn ‘man’ + -ʔis
pʌʔnis
‘of the man’
 
kaŋ ‘jaguar’ + -ʔis
kaʔŋis
‘of the jaguar’
 
lugar ‘place’ + -ʔoyh
lugaʔroyh
‘at the place’
 
perol ‘copper kettle’ + -ʔis
peroʔlis
‘of the copper kettle’
 

Conditions

The above processes occur across morpheme boundaries. Phonotactics: According to Wonderly (1951(17):113), "clusters of y plus consonant except ty, h occur in native Zoque words only after e; otherwise such clusters appear only in Spanish loans."

The above processes occur across morpheme boundaries.

Motivations

Palatalization (Sagey1986): Sagey (1986) argues that apparent glide/consonant metathesis in Zoque isn't metathesis at all. Rather, palatalization is involved: the vowel articulation of the glide is pronounced as a secondary palatal articulation on the following consonant.

Sonority hierarchy restrictions(Stonham 1990): Metathesis occurs to resolve a sonority violation.

Symbols

ʈ = voiceless alveo-palatal stop
ɖ = voiced alveo-palatal stop
ɲ = alveo-palatal nasal
cç = voiceless alveo-palatal affricate
ɟʝ = voiced alveo-palatal affricate
ʃ = voiceless aveo-palatal fricative

Comments

Bibliography

  • Sagey, E. 1986. The Representation of features and relations in nonlinear phonology. PhD dissertation. MIT. 106-112.
  • Wonderly, W. 1951. Zoque: Phonemics and Morphology. International Journal of American Linguistics 17, 1-4; 18, 1, 4.