English (Old)
- Language Family
- Indo-European
- Subgroup
- West Germanic
- Area
- —
Summary
sp' underwent metathesis to 'ps' in late Old English.
Medial 'sk' often underwent metathesis to 'ks' in late West Saxon.
The affix -thorp 'outlying farm' in place names alternates with -thrup historically, as well as showing synchronic variation.
Type(s) of metathesis
| Type | Status | Optionality | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. CC | Diachronic | Obligatory | Adjacent | Root-internal, root-final | |
| b. CC | Diachronic | Obligatory | Adjacent | Root-internal | |
| c. CV | Both/unknown | Optional | Adjacent | Suffix |
Case types and qualities
-
- CC
-
- C1:
- Bilabial stop
- C2:
- Alveolar fricative
-
- CC
-
- C1:
- Velar stop
- C2:
- Alveolar fricative
-
- CV
-
- C:
- Rhotic
- V:
- Mid back rounded
- V:
- Mid central lax
- V:
- Low back rounded
- V:
- High front unrounded
Examples
ps > sp in late Old English
Medial sk in Old English > ks in late West Saxon
Althorp (proper name; attestations circa 2000):
[ɔːlθɔːp] (press and general public - n.b. postvocalic non-rhoticity)
[ɔːltɹəp] (Received Pronunciation variant 1)
[ɔːlθɹəp] (Received Pronunciation variant 2)
Examples from Fryd 2016
Conditions
No conditions could be found
Motivations
See Steriade (2001) regarding a perceptually-based account of stop-fricative metathesis.
See Steriade (2001) regarding a perceptually-based account of stop-fricative metathesis.
Use of r-initial variants may index Anglo-Saxon identity.
Symbols
Comments
Bibliography
- Alexander, James 1985. R-metathesis in English: a diachronic account. Journal of English Linguistics 18:33-40.
- Fryd, Marc. 2016. Étude de la variation dans le lexique toponymique anglais : le cas de la métathèse dans l'élément –thorp, in: Isabelle Gaudy-Campbell & Yvon Keromnes (Eds). Variation, invariant et plasticité langagière, Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté.
- Hogg, Richard 1977. Old English r-metathesis and generative phonology. Journal of Linguistics 13:165-75.
- Keyser, Samuel J. 1975. Metathesis and Old English phonology. Linguistic Inquiry 6:377-411.
- Silva, Clare M. 1973. Metathesis of Obstruent Clusters. OSUWPL 14. 77- 84.
- Steriade, Donca. 2001. Directional asymmetries in assimilation. In E. Hume & K. Johnson (eds.), The Role of Perception in Phonology. New York: Academic. 219-278.
- Wright, Joseph & Elizabeth Mary Wright. 1925. Old English Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford English Press.