Chimakuan/Chimakum
- Language Family
- Chimakuan
- Subgroup
- —
- Area
- —
Summary
Proto-Chimakuan root-initial and root-final consonants underwent metathesis across an intervening vowel in Chimakum.
Type(s) of metathesis
| Type | Status | Optionality | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. CC | Diachronic | Obligatory | Non-adjacent | Root-initial, root-final |
Case types and qualities
-
- CC
-
- C1:
- Bilabial nasal
- C1:
- Alveolar lateral
- C2:
- Alveolar fricative
- C2:
- Uvular stop
Examples
| Proto-Chimakuan | Chimakum | |
|---|---|---|
| *mʔas- | sam | 'to lift, heavy' |
| *mʔaq- | qaʔm- | 'beyond' |
Conditions
No conditions could be found
Motivations
Borrowing (Mielke & Hume 2000): The fact that Chimakum roots that are reported to have undergone metathesis have corresponding roots in Salish languages suggests that the existence of apparently metathesized forms in the language may be the result of multiple borrowing rather than metathesis.
Symbols
ʔ = glottal stop
q = voiceless uvular stop
mʔ = glottalized bilabial nasal
Comments
Bibliography
- Mielke, Jeff & Elizabeth Hume. 2001. Considerations of Word Recognition for Metathesis. In E.Hume, N. Smith & J. van de Weijer, Surface Syllable Structure and Segment Sequencing. Leiden: HIL. 2001.
- Powell, J. V. 1985. An occurrence of metathesis in Chumakuan. In Acson, Veneeta Z., & R. Leed. eds., For Gordon H. Fairbanks. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.