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Hello everyone,
welcome to the Langfocus channel and my name is:
Plau.
Today I want to look at a linguistic phenomenon that I find interesting.
It's called Metathesis.
The word "metathesis" comes from the Greek word "μετάθεσις",
meaning change of position, or transposition.
It refers to a situation in which adjacent sounds change position in a word.
For example, in English we have the word "ask",
but you might have also heard "ax" in some dialects.
You can see that the two consonants have switched places.
Another example from English;
we have the word "asterisk",
which refers to this little star-looking symbol.
Oh wait, not that one,
this one.
Some people pronounce it as "asteriks".
Another one.
The prefix 'intro' or "intrə" (another pronunciation)
is often pronounced like "inter".
For example, "introduce", is sometimes pronounced as "interduce",
so that you can see that the "r" sound and the vowel has become reversed.
Another one.
The prefix "pre" is often pronounced like 'per'.
For example, "prescription" becomes "perscription".
We can see examples of metathesis, of side by side sounds switching positions in many different languages.
In what kinds of situations does this happen?
Well, during the development of a language, there's sometimes a change.
For example, the English word "bird" came from the Old English word "bridd".
You can see that the "r" sound and the "i" became reversed.
Also, the English word "thrill" came from the Middle English word "thirlen",
again, the "r" and the vowel switched positions.
Second, metathesis sometimes takes places in one of two sister languages as they develop.
For example, there's Spanish "preguntar"
and Portuguese "perguntar", which both mean "to ask".
And there's the Czech word "plukovník",
and the Polish word "pułkownik", which both mean "colonel", as in the military rank.
And similarly, there's sometimes a change in certain dialects of a language but not in others, or not in the Standard language.
This is like (what?) we saw in the example of "ask" and "aks".
"Aks" is probably the most well known example of metathesis, and it's often thought to be "broken English", or a "mistake",
but both "ask" and "aks" have been around for over a thousand years.
There was Old English "ascian", as well as "acsian", which originated from metathesis.
Eventually, "ask" became the standard pronunciation, but "aks" is still common in various dialects,
most famously in African American Vernacular English, (AAVE) also known as "Ebonics".
But it's also used in some other in the American South, as well as some dialects in England.
You know, that city near Europe?
*E̶̪͚̻͎̝͓͇̜̟͉̘̙͙̤͐ͤ̄͊͑ͫ̈́̆͜N̻͖͚̲̖̠̖̘͚̦̼̣̗̤̟̺̹̦̝ͧ̒̐̈̅̾ͦͬͫͤ̾͝G̴̶̘̭͙̙̯̱̥̰̬̜͓̥͔̲̜͕̤̎́̈́̔̒͋̆͂͋̆ͩͬ̍ͯͭͮ̌͗ͬ͠Lͤ͌ͯ̑͛ͯ̆ͮ̃̊̌̔͐ͮ̐͆́ͬ̊͏̙̪̬̥͔̣̦̦̦̹̯̀Ä͚͔̺̞̘͉̫͓̺̳͙̪͇̞̬̝͇̤͌ͮ͋ͫ͗̿͋ͥ͢͟N̵̨͈͍̟̹̜̼̔̿͂̇ͪ̉ͬ̔̓ͤ͘͝ͅD̴̵̩̪̹̜͇̮̬̟̱̤̦̅ͬͤ̈́́͡͞ͅ ̴̵̞̪̻̪̮͓̤̝̭͕͐̈́̓͐͂̉̐̍̾̎̌I̸̡̳͙̫̭̯͕̗̘̦̼̫̥̝͍͍͇̼̰̊̈ͪͣ͑͆ͯ̉͗͐ͮͬͯ̑ͣ͛͛S̵̖̺̤͙͙͎̱͔̤̬͕̯̘̖̝͆̍̌̕ͅ ̶̧̛̥̝̪̟̱͉̞͖̹̞͍̳͓̟̰̱͙̜͉͗͂̑̈ͬͣ͒ͭͯͯ͋̿̑ͯ̆̋̈ͧ̃Mͬ̉̃̅ͤ̌̎̽̆͏̦͍̤͎̭̻͖̺̩͉̪̩̖̰̟ͅY͈͉̥̪̬̜̘̞͖̞͉̪̭̌ͩͭ͊̂̉̕͜͜ ̨̛̥̤͈̖͚͈͇͉̦̟̥̬̰̈́ͦ̿͛ͩ̊̐̓͗̀͆̀̕͡ͅͅC̨͍̻̰̞̙̰̯̐͗ͮ̎̊̓̄̈̇͂̽̇ͩ̊ͤͨ̔ͩ̉͜I̽̽̈̎ͧͥͪͫ̋̍̇͏͖̗̯̗̤̹̣̞̼͉̰͓̝͜T̑̃͗ͩͩ͑͏̧͎͉̪̤̱̩̕͜Y̸̧͔͙̫̥͎̘̫͉͎͍͉̹͉̳͆ͮͧ̐ͨ͗ͭ̓̋̾̀ͅ*
Fourth, metathesis also sometimes takes place systematically within a language, in certain phonetic or grammatical contexts.
One example comes from Hebrew.
In Hebrew most words are based on roots consisting of usually three consonants in a specific order.
Verbs are created by placing the roots into a series of templates, that shape the meaning of the root.
A typical example might be like this:
The root is k - t - v.
The first template is the Pa'al form.
"Katav" (כָּתַב in Hebrew).
That's the dictionary form of the verb to write.
There are numerous other templates,
but the key one is the "Hitpa'el template."
"Hitkatev" (הִתְכַּתֵּב in Hebrew),
meaning to correspond, as in by written letters in the old days.
The hitpa'el template often gives the root reflexive or reciprocal meaning,
doing the action together with someone else.
I'll get to the metathesis in just a second,
this is background information for the Hebrew example.
When the first consonant of a Hebrew root is an alveolar or post-alveolar fricative,
like a /s/, / ʃ /, or /z/ or /ts/ sound,
then the first consonant switches positions and comes before the /t/ in the hitpa'el template.
For example, we have the root sh - m - sh,
which means "use".
Which in the hitpa'el template becomes
"hishtamesh" (הִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ in Hebrew), rather than "hitshamesh" (הִתַּשְׁמֵּשׁ in Hebrew)
So you can see that the "t" and the "sh" ( ʃ ) have changed places.
Metathesis can also involve the transposition of entire syllables.
For example, in Japanese, we have the word "gomen", which is used to mean "I'm sorry",
but sometimes people say "mengo",
which is a humorous way of saying "sorry".
So metathesis is sometimes done intentionally for humor,
but why else does it take place?
Well it's often a momentary error, sometimes, people might get confused, or nervous,
or they're thinking about two overlapping concepts at the same time, so they say the wrong thing.
For example, maybe they intend to say "gold card" but they say "cold guard".
Also, children sometimes make errors like this when they misperceive the sounds of a word, or they have trouble reproducing them.
A common example is "pasghetti" instead of "spaghetti".
But metathesis is often endu—
repeat? plau exposed11!111!!111 mis@3tke11!1111
But metathesis is often enduring, with shifts in words or in sound combinations,
becoming a part of that dialect or language.
This could happen because certain sound combinations are slightly more awkward to articulate than others,
and people most naturally look for the path of least resistance.
Also, it could be that people perceive slightly different sounds as variations of each other.
For instance, vowels with different lengths or stress,
together with "r" or "l" sounds.
So take the word "pretty" which is pronounced as "perty" in some dialects,
and by lots of other people trying to be funny.
*roasted*
If you say "pretty" slowly,
"per-ri-tty"
between the "p" and the "r", it sounds like there's a slight vowel sound there, like /əɹ/,
so maybe people came to percive the beginning of the word /pəɹ/",
and /pɜɹ/ as close variations.
And maybe when they say /pɜɹti/ (perty) they are perceiving a slight schwa vowel after the "r",
like /pɜɹə/, /pɜɹti/,
and that slight schwa is considered a variation of the /i/ vowel.
I'm speculating of course,
but if you break down the sounds, you can see where
people might perceive some similarity, where it's not immediately obvious to us.
And there are probably other reasons for metathesis as well,
like the influence of other languages through contact.
Metathesis is a very common linguistic phenomenon.
If you pay attention for it, if you keep your eyes and ears open for it,
you'll probably see some examples of words that are pronounced
somewhat differently from their written form due to metathesis.
And if you enjoy examining related languages, (i do)
you'll likely notice some examples of metathesis in cognate vocabulary.
If you can think of any other examples of metathesis,
or if you would like to ax a question,
please leave them in the comments down below.
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Thank you for watching and have a nice day!
thank you plau x3
nice music right? i'm enjoying it as i make these subtitles
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