Metathesis in Language 2.0

Cherokee

Language Family
Iroquoian
Subgroup
Southern Iroquoian
Area
—

Summary

In the derivation of the second singular forms, there is a reordering of a glide and glottal fricative.

Type(s) of metathesis

Type Status Optionality Position Location
a. CC/CV Synchronic Obligatory Adjacent Between root and prefix

Case types and qualities

Examples

Counterfactive Cislocative
/yi-hi-nega/ --> [hyinega] /wi-hi-nega/ --> [hwinega] 'you'


cf.
Counterfactive Cislocative
yi-ji-nega wi-ji-nega 'I'
yi-ga-nega wi-ga-nega 'he'

Conditions

Deletion of the vowel 'i' conditions metathesis.
i-deletion: The vowel 'i' deletes when preceding a second singular form.

/yi-hi-nega/
-->
i-deletion
[yhinega]
-->
metathesis
[hyinega] 'you (S), counteractive'
/wi-hi-nega/
-->
i-deletion
[whinega]
-->
metathesis
[hwinega] 'you (S), cislocative'

Motivations

Phonotactic Restriction (Foley 1980): In Cherokee, there are no cases of clusters of a glide plus a non-vocalic segment except in a couple of instances, e.g. dlayka 'bluejay'. This phonotactic restriction has been seen as the motivation for metathesis of a glide and glottal fricative.

Symbols

Comments

Thanks to Darin M. Howe (University of Calgary) for contributing information relevant to this page.

Bibliography

  • Feeling, Durbin. 1975. Cherokee-English dictionary, ed. by William Pulte. [Talequah:] Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
  • Flemming, Edward. 1996. Laryngeal metathesis and deletion in Cherokee. UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics 16: Cherokee Papers from UCLA, ed. by Pamela Munro, 23-44.
  • Foley, Lawrence. 1980. Phonological Variation in Western Cherokee. Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics. Garland Publishing: New York & London.