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Chapter 6: Segmental change: an outline of some of the most common

phonological processes
6.1. Sounds in connected speech. Coarticulation
6.2. Feature Changes. Assimilation. Different types of assimilation
6.3. Voicing and devoicing
6.4. Nasalization
6.5. Palatalization
6.6. Lenitions and fortitions
6.7. Delitions and insertions
6.8. Metathesis

6.8. Metathesis

Reversing the order of sounds or groups of sounds within a word is a process that
is called metathesis. It can be based on a diachronic process, as the frequently cited
English bird and horse which come from OE brid and hros respectively or, in French
fromage which comes from the Lat. formaticus (compare the Italian formagio, that
doesn’t display the change), or in Romanian castravete which comes from the Bulgarian
krastavet or the alternative variants pritoci and pitroci, a verb referring to a technology
for producing wine. It can also be the result of mispronunciation. See the name of the
Romanian village of Potigrafu, clearly coming from Tipografu “printer”. Caragiale’s
works represent a rich source of similar examples of metathetical mispronunciations. His
uneducated characters often mispronounce words that are unknown or sound exotic to
them. E.g.: proper names like Galibardi instead of Garibaldi (Conu Leonida faţă cu
reacţiunea) or Marcu Aoleriu instead of Marc Aureliu (O noapte furtunoasă); common
nouns like zavragii (Conu Leonida), plebicist or renumeraţie (O scrisoare pierdută).
Here is the general representation of metathesis:
AB → BA / X – Y

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