LL-L: "Phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 26.JAN.2000 (05) [E]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 26.JAN.2000 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
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From: Peter Stornebrink <frlboppe at direct.ca>
Subject: Language dis-similarities

Talking to my wife today about warts it struck me that the English and
Dutch words are very similar except for a slight permutation of letters:
English: wart
Dutch: wrat

My question are:
Is there a reason for this dissimilarity?
Can anyone think of other words that are likewise dissimilar as the result
of a permutation (interchange of letters) in two or more Lowlandic words?

Peter Stornebrink, Victoria B.C.,
Canada

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Phonology

Peter,

In the case of English _wart_ and its Dutch cognate _wrat_ you are dealing
with a case of metathesis, i.e., transposing of two phonological segments, in
this case of a vowel (/a/) and a liquid (/r/).  This tends to happen
particularly where, like these, the two segments are similar, i.e., share
certain articulatory features (i.e., liquids are vowel-like).  Strangely,
though, it tends to occur not systematically but sporadically.  Where it
happens late in the history of a given language, some dialects are affected
while others are not.  In any case, it can only happen if a language variety
permits such a metathesized configuration (in this case initial /wr/), and
metathesis is more likely to occur in cases where a language variety *prefers*
such a configuration.  Oftentimes, some dialects of a given language will have
metathesis while others do not.

Off the Lowlands track, I found that metathesis of initial /CVL/ to initial
/CLV/ is almost consistently applied in *frequently-used* words in the
little-known Turkic Yughur (or Yellow Uyghur) language (used in China).  This
type of metathesis is unheard of in other Turkic languages, because they are
strictly /CV(C)/-type languages in which /CLV/ is impossible.  What happened
in the case of Yughur is that it has had centuries of contacts with Amdo
Tibetan varieties which abound with words that have the initial cluster /CLV/,
and  certain numbers former Tibetan speakers assumedly adopted this Turlic
language in that region.  This changed the possibilities and even preferences
in the language to the degree where /CLV/ is now preferred over original
/CVL/.  Thus, what in other Turkic languages is _dur_ 'is/are' has become
_dro_ in Yughur.

Another example of the same type of metathesis is Low Saxon (Low German)
_dörven_ ~ _dröffen_ 'to be allowed to' (e.g., _ik dörv_ ~ _ik dröv/dröff_ 'I
may').  Likewise, 'wart' is _Waart_ ~ _Woort_ in some Low Saxon dialects and
_Wratt_ in others.  Since most Germanic languages have /ar/ rather than /ra/
in the cognates of this word, we must assume that Dutch _wrat_ and Low Saxon
_Wratt_ are metathesized forms.  (This particular kind of metathesis couldn't
happen to German _Warze_ because German does not permit initial /wr/, at least
not initially or "natively," has it only in Low Saxon loans such as _Wrack_
'wreck'.)  In the case of Dutch it so happens that the standard language ended
up with _wrat_.  However, I would not be too surprised if there were some
Dutch dialects that have _wart_ instead.

I hope this helped at least a little bit.

Best regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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