Nganyaywana
- Language Family
- Pama-Nyungan
- Subgroup
- Anewan
- Area
- Northern New South Wales
Summary
Proto-Paman word-initial vowels metathesize and realize as coarticulation (glides) in the following syllable.
Type(s) of metathesis
| Type | Status | Optionality | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. CV | Diachronic | Obligatory | Adjacent | Root-internal |
Case types and qualities
-
- CV
-
- C:
- Any
- V:
- High
Examples
*igaja > gjaja 'food'
*ibana > bjana 'fat'
*ugaŋa > gwaŋa 'child'
*uda > dwa 'cry'
Conditions
No conditions could be found
Motivations
This sound changes follow two related processes: stress shift from the historical initial syllable to the second syllable, and subsequent consonant loss of the initial syllable. Blevins & Garrett (1998) terms this change "compensatory metathesis"
Symbols
Comments
Bibliography
Blevins, Juliette, and Andrew Garrett. 1998. The origins of consonant-vowel metathesis. Language 74.3 (September): 508–556. doi:10.2307/417792