#metathesis

[thebestelse]

My favorite type of nonsense

[linguisticillustrations]

Optimality Theory diagram (tableau) for foot/syllable metathesis in Naijá (also known as Nigerian Pidgin) used for the "unconventional negative" (UNC.NEG) form of nouns.

Examples of this and related processes (taken from an author's post on Mastodon):

Tone metathesis in documented varieties of Naijá [fádà] “father” [fàdá] “rev. father” [màmá] “mother” [mámà] “trendy old lady” (other meanings are possible)

Truncation in the Wafi variety [bâ:g] “bag” [â:g] “inferior bag” [stô:v] “stove” [tô:v] “cheap stove”

Syllable metathesis in the Wafi variety [pòló] “polo shirt” [lòpó] “inferior polo shirt” [àʃáwó] “sex worker” [àwóʃá] “cheap sex worker” [láptɔ̂:p] “laptop” [tóplâ:p] “cheap laptop”

From the article:

Akinbo, Samuel Kayode and Ekiugbo, Philip Oghenesuowho. 2024. "Iconicity as the motivation for morphophonological metathesis and truncation in Nigerian Pidgin" Open Linguistics 10(1): https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2024-0013

[linguisticdiscovery]

Metathesis in Greek

My last post was about how sounds can switch places in English, but that's not the only time this has happened! It occurred in Ancient Greek as well, and you might be surprised by all the English words we get from both forms of the word.

Metathesis in Greek

In historical linguistics and phonology, metathesis is the term used for when two sounds switch places with each other.Like this video? Want

[stephenescher]

How to Evolve Your Conlang - Part 1: Sound Change

How to Evolve Your #Conlang - Part 1: Sound Change

Languages are never set in stone, and your conlang shouldn’t really be either. This is to be the first part of a recurring series on the basics of historical linguistics and how to evolve your conlang. In this first part, I will discuss the various kinds of sound changes that can occur and how to apply them to conlanging.

The obvious way to use historical linguistics in conlanging is to first…

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[horationalize]

Bro stop metathesizing scou’re yaring he thoes

[labphoto]

Dissolution of a Grubbs type olefin metathesis catalyst in dichloromethane. 

Olefin metathesis reaction is a “modern” transformation used in organic chemistry. This reaction allows the exchange of substituents between different olefins. As a simplified scheme this happens: 

This reaction was first used in petroleum reformation for the synthesis of higher olefins (Shell higher olefin process - SHOP), with nickel catalysts under high pressure and high temperatures. Nowadays, even polyenes with MW > 250,000 are produced industrially in this way.

Grubbs' catalysts are a series of transition metal carbene complexes used as catalysts for olefin metathesis. They are named after Robert H. Grubbs, the chemist who supervised their synthesis. Several generations of the catalyst have been developed. Grubbs' catalysts tolerate many functional groups in the alkene substrates, are air-tolerant, and are compatible with a wide range of solvents. For these reasons, Grubbs' catalysts have become popular in synthetic organic chemistry. Some of the most popular Grubbs catalysts: 

For their elucidation of the reaction mechanism and their discovery of a variety of highly active catalysts, Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, and Richard R. Schrock were collectively awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

[possessivesuffix]

Some interesting data from the dissertation just mentioned in my last reblog (Kaspar Ozoliņš (2015), Revisiting Proto-Indo-European Schwebeablaut). The forms here demonstrate a regular sound change found in Armenian: metathesis of consonant clusters comprising a stop consonant (b, d, j, t, k) + *r.

Two other regular changes exhibited here are worth highlighting as well:

dissimilation *r-r > ł-r, in ‘brother’ and ‘spring’;

epenthesis of a or e (don’t ask me in what distribution) before an original word-initial consonant cluster *Cr-, in the last four examples.

[linguisticdiscovery]

Metathesis in English

Sometimes sounds in a word can switch places with each other, and this is called ✨metathesis✨. It's probably my favorite type of sound change.

Did you know this happened in English as well? Here's a quick video about how:

Metathesis in English

In historical linguistics and phonology, metathesis is the term used for when two sounds switch places with each other.Like this video? Want