Quileute
- Language Family
- Chimakuan
- Subgroup
- —
- Area
- —
Summary
Proto-Chimakuan root-initial and root-final consonants underwent metathesis across an intervening vowel in Quileute.
Type(s) of metathesis
| Type | Status | Optionality | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a. CC | Diachronic | Obligatory | Non-adjacent | Root-initial, root-final |
Case types and qualities
-
- CC
-
- C1:
- Alveolar lateral
- C1:
- Bilabial nasal
- C2:
- Alveolar fricative
- C2:
- Alveolar lateral fricative
- C2:
- Palatal glide
Examples
| Proto-Chimakuan | Quileute | |
|---|---|---|
| *l'ay- | yaʔl- | 'near, toward' |
| *m'as- | siʔb- | 'to smell, nose' |
Conditions
No conditions could be found
Motivations
Borrowing (Mielke & Hume 2000): Quileute roots that are reported to have undergone metathesis have corresponding roots in Salish languages. This may suggest that the existence of apparently metathesized forms in the language results from multiple borrowings rather than metathesis.
Symbols
ʔ = glottal stop
l' = glottalized lateral
m' = glottalized bilabial nasal
l̥ = voiceless lateral
Comments
Bibliography
- Mielke, Jeff & Elizabeth Hume. 2001. Considerations of Word Recognition for Metathesis. In E.Hume, N. Smith & J. van de Weijer, Surface Syllable Structure and Segment Sequencing. Leiden: HIL. 2001.
- Powell, J. V. 1985. An occurrence of metathesis in Chumakuan. In Acson, Veneeta Z., & R. Leed. eds., For Gordon H. Fairbanks. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.