Metathesis

[William J Poser]

There isn't really a literature on it, but in Carrier there is a metathesis
of the tense marker and the conjunct negative prefix in the future
negative. In general, the conjunct negative prefix (/z/ when there is
an inner subject marker, /s/ when there is not) precedes the tense
marker, as one can see below in, e.g., the 1s, where the negative
marker /z/ precedes the tense marker /i/. However, where there is no
inner subject marker, that is, in the 1p, 3s, and 3dp, the order
of the negative marker and the tense marker is reverse and we get
/is/. (So, the expected form of the 3s, in the absence of metathesis,
would be *lhtuzijun.)

"to sing" - future
		Affirmative		Negative
	singular dual	plural	singular	dual		plural	
1	tisjun	tadjun	uztijun	lhtuzisjun	lhtuzajun	lhts'utisjun
2	tanjun	tihjun	tihjun	lhtuzanjun	lhtuzihjun	lhtuzihjun
3	tijun	hutijun	hutijun	lhtisjun	lhotisjun	lhotisjun

The same thing happens in the optative negative:

"to sing" - optative
		Affirmative			Negative
	singular dual	plural	  singular	dual	   plural
1	oosjun	ojun	ts'oojun  lhuzoosjun	lhuzojun   lhts'oosjun
2	onjun	oohjun	oohjun    lhuzonjun	lhuzoohjun lhuzoohjun
3	oojun	hoojun	hoojun	  lhoosjun	lhuhoosjun lhuhoosjun

But for the metathesis, we would expect the 3s FN to be *lhuzoojun.

Bill