Origins of Metathesis in Batsbi

Monday, 8 November 2010, Colloquium

Alice Harris, University of Massachusetts

Abstract

Blevins and Garrett (1998) investigate in detail the origins of metathesis in a number of languages and identify two types of metathesis and a “pseudometathesis”. For them, “pseudometathesis” is a synchronic process that does not originate through the historical process of metathesis. They analyze languages in which “pseudometathesis” originates through epenthesis and deletion (1998) or through reinterpretation and generalization of other processes in the language (Garrett and Blevins 2009). I argue here that metathesis in Batsbi originates as a result of grammaticalization, together with regular phonological processes. I argue further that it is true metathesis, which spreads beyond the environment in which it originally occurred.