Metathesis in Language 2.0

Leti

Language Family
Austronesian
Subgroup
Malayo-Polynesian
Area
—

Summary

Phrase-medial metathesis: Preceding a morpheme-initial consonant cluster or /CVV/ sequence, the ordering of morpheme-final segments is consonant + vowel as the result of metathesis.

Phrase-final metathesis: In cases of consonant-final forms in phrase-final position, the final vowel and consonant of a morpheme change positions.

Type(s) of metathesis

Type Status Optionality Position Location
a. CV Synchronic Obligatory Adjacent Across morpheme boundaries
b. CV Synchronic Obligatory Adjacent Root-final

Case types and qualities

Examples

Phrase-medial metathesis. Metathesis occurs within a phrase when a consonant-final morpheme is followed by a morpheme beginning with a consonant cluster or geminate consonant.

/kunis + βnutan/ ---> kunsiβnutna ---> ‘key + iron’
/ukar + ppalu/ ---> ukrappalu ---> ‘finger + bachelor = index finger’
/ulit + prai/ ---> ultiprai ---> ‘skin + prai’

cf. Before a morpheme-initial CV sequence, no metathesis applies and instead the surface form corresponds to the underlying consonant-final form.

/ukar + lavan/ ---> ukar lavena ---> ‘finger + big = thumb, big toe’
/urun + mɔa/ ---> urun mɔa ---> ‘breadfruit + Moanese’

Phrase-final metathesis. Phrase finally, all morphemes are vowel final. This triggers metathesis of C-final morphemes.

UR Phrase-finally   Cf. ___# CV  
/urun/ [urnu] ‘beautiful’ [urun mɔa] ‘Moanese breadfruit’
/mɛsar/ [mɛsra] ‘teacher’ [mɛsar lavna] ‘teacher, big’



cf. If the morpheme is vowel-final, no metathesis applies and the phrase-final surface form is identical to the underlying form. Other phonological processes affect the final vowel in phrase-medial position, e.g. low vowel deletion, glide formation.

Phrase-finally   cf. Phrase-medially    
rai ‘land’ ralyavana /rai + lavan/ ‘land + to be big = continent’
lopu ‘dolphin’ lopdwo /lopu + do/ ‘dolphin, then’

Conditions

Metathesis is conditioned by a phrasal boundary. It is also conditioned by the segmental makeup of the morpheme undergoing metathesis (consonant-final), and that of the following morpheme (starts with a consonant cluster or geminate consonant).

Metathesis is conditioned by a phrasal boundary. It is also conditioned by the segmental makeup of the morpheme undergoing metathesis (consonant-final), and that of the following morpheme (starts with a consonant cluster or geminate consonant).

Motivations

Phrase-medial metathesis

Syllable Well-formedness Condition (Hume, 1998) : With respect to metathesis before an initial consonant cluster, the avoidance of tautosyllabic consonant clusters provides the impetus for change.

Phrase-final metathesis

Phrasal Requirement (Hume, 1998): In phrase-final position, all morphemes end in a vowel, and this triggers a phrase-final metathesis.

Symbols

Comments

Note: The view of metathesis presented above is based on Hume 1997, 1998. This approach differs from that of van Engelenhoven's in that it is assumed that there are both C-final and V-final morphemes underlyingly. In van Engelenhoven, all morphemes are V-final. Discussion of this latter approach, and evidence in favour of the former appear in Hume 1998, in particular. The analysis of van der Hulst & van Engelenhoven is also discussed in that paper.

Bibliography

  • Hume, Elizabeth, Jennifer Muller and Aone van Engelenhoven. 1998. Nonmoraic Geminates in Leti. Phonology 14.3. 371-402.
  • Hume, Elizabeth. 1995. Beyond linear order: Prosodic constraints and C/V metathesis. Proceedings of FLSM 6. Indiana Linguistics Club.
  • Hume, Elizabeth. 1998. Metathesis in phonological theory: The case of Leti. Lingua 104. 147-186.
  • Hume, Elizabeth. 1998. Metathesis in phonological theory: The case of Leti. Lingua 104. 147-186.
  • Hume, Elizabeth. 1998. Vowel Preservation in Leti. Oceanic Linguistics 36.1. 65-101. 1997.
  • van Engelenhoven, Aone. 1994. A Description of the Leti language. PhD dissertation. University of Leiden.
  • van Engelenhoven, Aone. 1996. Metathesis and the quest for definiteness in the Leti of Tutukei (East Indonesia). In H. Steinhauer (ed.), Papers in Austronesian Linguistics 3. Pacific Linguistics. 207-215.
  • van der Hulst, Harry and Aone van Engelenhoven. 1993. Metathesis effects in Tutukeian-Letinese. ms. Leiden University.
  • van der Hulst, Harry and Aone van Engelenhoven. 1995. Metathesis effects in Leti. In Harry van der Hulst and Jeroen van de Weijer (eds.), Leiden in Last. HIL Phonology Papers I. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.