Metathesis in Language 2.0

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

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.

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.