Hua
- Language Family
- Trans-New-Guinea
- Subgroup
- Kamano-Yagaria
- Area
- —
Summary
Two adjacent consonants optionally metathesize.
Type(s) of metathesis
| Type | Status | Optionality | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. CC | Synchronic | Optional | Adjacent | Root-initial, root-internal |
Case types and qualities
-
- CC
-
- C1:
- Any
- C2:
- Any
Examples
aigmeroga
~
aimgeroga
'dung heap'
ormi-
~
omri-
'come down'
pkai-
~
kpai-
'grow, nurture, develop'
The form on the left is more common.
Conditions
Editor's notes:
All of the examples provided in Haiman (1980) involve a labial consonant, i.e. [v, m, b, p], next to a non-homorganic consonant.
All consonants involved are immediately adjacent to one another.
All of the examples provided in Haiman (1980) involve a labial consonant, i.e. [v, m, b, p], next to a non-homorganic consonant.
All consonants involved are immediately adjacent to one another.
Motivations
Editor's notes: It is interesting to note that when one of two metathesizing consonants is a sonorant and the other is an obstruent, the order obstruent + sonorant is more common. In all of the examples provided by Haiman, of which a subset appear above, the obstruent/sonorant sequence occurs between vowels. Sequences of two sonorants or two obstruents can appear intervocalically or at the beginning of a word. In cases in which both consonants share the same manner of articulation, the order in which the consonants appear doesn't, at this point, seem predictable.
Symbols
Comments
Bibliography
- Haiman, John. 1980. HUA: A Papuan Language of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Studies in Language Companion Series. Vol. 5. Amsterdam/John Benjamins B.V.