Phonological Metathesis in Persian: Synchronic, Diachronic, and the ...

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8 Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji, No. 56, Spring 2010 terms of the overall perceptual salience of the segments involved. This can be achieved by shifting a consonant from an environment in which the clues to its identification are more robust, or by reordering segments in order to improve the overall salience of a neighboring sound or sounds. Ultan (1978; 383-90) mentions some conditions for occurrence of metathesis: a) reduction as in apocopy of vowels in Persian : suxr (Pahlavi) > surx ( Persian) b) open syllable canon, as in French, vervecem > berbis (young) (also see Martinet, 1955:349-356) c) phonetic constraint such as eliminating initial or final clusters with liquids as setl (Old English) > seld (English) d) attraction, such as drit, brid (middle English) > dirt, bird (Modern English), in which although Cr cluster is admissible, post vocalic dental exerted a strong attraction on the r. Alexander (1985: 34-5) formalize this attraction as following: 2. [- coronal] r v [+ coronal ] → 1,3,2,4 1 2 3 4 Thereby he suggests a hierarchy of consonants (3) to be drawn up, with the left most consonants being the ones strongest in the attraction of r. The notation “ >” when used in (3) below, means ‘is stronger than’: 3. d > l > θ > k > f > h t s g w n p b m Hock (1985:534) suggests that regular metathesis serves to eliminate clusters when it fails to conform to the preferred syllable structure according to which sonority increases in the onset and decreases in the coda. According to Selkirk (1984) the Sonority Sequence Principle in (4) specifies the order in which consonants arrange themselves from the syllable nucleus to its edge: stop-fricative-nasal-liquid-glide-vowel-glide-liquid-nasal-fricative-stop
Phonological Metathesis in Persian ... 9 The proneness of different phonetic classes to metathesis tends to stand in direct correlation with a hierarchy of resonance. By increasing the sonorant quality of a sound, its tendency to undergo the metathesis also increases. The sole exception involves an original sequence of voiceless stop + sibilant, metathesis of which was found to be fairly common and widespread. In Armenia, the evidence points to a chronological hierarchy in the introduction of metathesis of original clusters of the type consonant + semi vowel. The first to metathesis were clusters containing semivowels, followed by the liquids, nasals, spirants, stops, and possibly the affricates, in that order (Ultan 1978:395). It is governed phonotactically, according to Grammont (1923) that less sonorant consonants (those with smaller aperture) are always positioned closer to syllable boundary and more sonorous consonants closer to syllabus nucleus. The disproportionaly high (and widespread) frequency of occurrence of liquids in metathesis is proverbial. A partial list of language for which this is true includes: Liquids: Breton, Cornish, Eastern Eskimo, Middle and Old French, Gaelic, Ancient Greek, Old Icelandic, Indo-European, Indonesia, Old Irish, Latin, Mandaic Aramic, Persian, South Slavic, Old Spanish, Tagalog, and Zoque. R only: Anglo-Norman, Armenian, Avestic (and Zend), Bagneres -de- Luchon, Middle English, Italian (Supraselva), Kamhmu, Mauritinian Creole, Vedic Sanskrit, Sardinian, and Toba. L only: Amuzgo and Yokuts (Ultan, 1978:392) Hume (1997:153-56) explains some motivations for metathesis in Leti. Metathesis before a consonant cluster serves to avoid a complex syllable margin. Thus, the surface syllabification of a form such as /ulit prail/ is claimed to be ul.tip.ra.i with the first consonant of the second morpheme syllabifying as coda of the preceding syllable. Were metathesis not to apply, we would expect the initial consonant of the second morpheme to syllabify as part of a complex syllable margin, e.g. *u.lit.pra.i or *u.litp.ra.i., more examples: Leti /ukar+ppalu/ ukrappalu ‘index finger’ /danat+kviali/ dantakviali ‘millipede’
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