Acta Linguistica Hafniensia

International Journal of Linguistics

ISSN: 0374-0463 (Print) 1949-0763 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/salh20

Vowel-consonant metathesis in a palestinian

dialect

C. Douglas Johnson

To cite this article: C. Douglas Johnson (1982) Vowel-consonant metathesis in a palestinian

dialect, Acta Linguistica Hafniensia, 17:1, 61-77, DOI: 10.1080/03740463.1982.10414897

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03740463.1982.10414897

Published online: 08 Dec 2011.

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 VOWEL-CONSONANT METATHESIS IN
A PALESTINIAN DIALECT
by

C. DOUGLAS JOHNSON
[University o f California, Santa Barbara]
[Received October 1979)
ABSTRACT

Many Arabic colloquials have a metathetic process C C V C > C V C C which many suppose to be the sum of
independently motivated rules of deletion and insertion. While this analysis may reflect a diachronic
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sequence of events and may still be descriptively valid for many dialects, it fails to generalize smoothly to at
least one Palestinian dialect because of the large differences in detailed conditions between metathesis and
the independent rules of deletion and insertion and because the putative independent rule of insertion may
no longer be synchronically valid. An alternative analysis of metathesis as resulting purely from deletions
accounts for much of the data but founders o n some words. Metathesis appears, then, to be a single
separate rule in the dialect in question.

In many dialects of m o d e r n colloquial Arabic stems that have the shape X C C V C

when suffixless or preconsonantal will, if they meet certain additional conditions
specific to the dialect, appear as X C V C C before a suffix beginning with a vowel.
The first of these alternants is presumably the older, corresponding more closely to
the invariant Classical or Egyptian form (cf. Mitchell 1956), and is the usual
citation form. One naturally tends, therefore, to think of that alternant as basic.
Some authors would derive the other alternant by means of a unitary Rule of
Metathesis; t h u s , for example, Erwin (1963:58-59) and Harrell (1962:18, 19), who
refer to the Iraqi and M o r o c c a n versions of the process as 'shift' and 'inversion',
respectively. However, virtually all the dialects exhibiting Metathesis also possess a
couple of independently motivated rules one of which deletes a short vowel in an
open syllable and the other of which inserts a short vowel between the first two
members of a triconsonantal cluster, provided certain additional conditions are met
in each case. For this reason many deny the separate existence of Metathesis,
viewing it merely as the sum of a deletion ( x c c f c + V C 0 > X C C C + V C ) and an
0

insertion ( X C C C + V C G > X C V C C + V C ) . Such is the position of Brockelmann

0

(1908:212), Cantineau (1960:113-114), Janssens (1972:91-100), writing on Arabic in

general, as well as of m a n y other investigators of specific dialects, for example

A C T A L1NOUISTICA H A F N I E N S I A 17.1 (1982) 61-77

 62 C. DOUGLAS JOHNSON

Cowell on Syrian (1964:28, 31) and Palva on Lower Galilean (1965:51-64). A b d o

(1969:69-70) explicitly argues for such a two-step analysis of Metathesis within a
generative description of M u k a b b i r Palestinian, and several subsequent a u t h o r s
(Brame 1971, 1973, 1974; Cole 1973) have accepted and refined it.
While attractive, the two-step analysis of Metathesis will entirely succeed only if
the categorical and variable conditions on Metathesis are pretty largely deducible
from the independently known properties of the deletion and insertion rules.
Unfortunately none of the mentioned authors thoroughly justifies the two-step
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analysis in this way. H e r e , by examining the detailed conditions on the rules, we will
test the viability of the two-step analysis for the dialect of a young male Palestinian
F H , who served as consultant in a field methods class and to me personally in the
years 1975-1976 while a graduate student at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. F H was born in A m m a n , J o r d a n , of Palestinian parents and speaks a
dialect close though not identical to the town dialects of Palestinian described by
Bauer (1926) and Palva (1965). F H ' s mother and another young male Palestinian
provided further though scanty supporting d a t a .

1 .Phoneticpreliminaries. F H ' s surface vowel system distinguishes the five qualities

/, e, a, o, u, each of which occurs long or short. Short i and u do not occur in a
stressed or checked syllable; it is short e and o which there correspond to Classical /
and u. In unstressed final position vowels are always short, and in other unstressed
syllables basic long vowels normally become short, for example:

bir 'well' birin 'two wells'

' o t e l 'hotel' 'otelat 'hotels'

' 6 d a 'room' ' o d e t h a 'her room'

f a l l i h 'peasant' fallahtn 'peasants'

bokol 'he eats' bokolhom 'he eats them'

dyura 'monasteries' dyurema 'our monasteries'

This Rule of Shortening is a purely surface p h e n o m e n o n that applies after all other
rules. Occasionally Shortening fails to take place or goes only half way.
Short e and o are intimately involved in the alternations at issue and will be
subsumed under the cover symbol E. They are basically high lax vowels [e] and [a],
opposed to tense i and u, and have lower allophones next to a pharyngeal or in a
final syllable. There is a rule of Vowel Harmony which changes derived
root-internal e to o in the context o C C , as will be seen in subsequent examples.
W o r d stress normally falls on the last vowel that is first, antepenultimate, long,
or followed immediately by a consonant cluster. Some examples of this basic stress
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 63

rule are dx ' b r o t h e r ' , bent 'girl', hayd 'life', sa dlt

7 7
' I / y o u a s k e d ' , ktabin 'two
b o o k s ' , ?azarit ' r e n t s ' , fallahfn ' p e a s a n t s ' , kdtab 'he w r o t e ' , benti 'my girl',
ktdbak 'your b o o k ' katdbti 'you (fern.) w r o t e ' , walddkom 'your (pi.) b o y ' , sa?dltni
'you asked m e ' , sekkTne ' k n i f e ' , mamaseh ' m o p s ' , basufak '1 see y o u ' , sayydrtak
'your c a r ' , bisufuki 'they see you (fern.)', mdktabe 'library', wdtadak 'your b o y ' ,
kdsaru 'they b r o k e ' , mortafat 'heights', bemseko 'he grasps him', beshanak 'he
dispatches y o u ' , mondfase 'competition', talld ato ?
'she divorced h i m ' .
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2. Metathesis takes approximately the following form in F H ' s dialect:

(1) C E
b -» E C / V C
b a C + V (where E is unstressed).
c

This rule is further restricted to the morphological categories (a)-(c) below and is of
highly variable application even there, as can be seen in the examples.
(a) N o u n s of the form C V C C + e / a . The stem-forming suffix -e/a, usually
associated with feminine gender, is replaced by -et before a pronominal or dual
suffix and may then entrain Metathesis, for example,

X our X my X
fekra fekretna fekerti 'idea'
nezme nezmctna nczcmti 'star'
(able tabletna tabelti 'drum'
•yOrfe 7orfetna -yorofti 'room'
5a'fe SaTetna Sa'feti - i a ' e f t i 'piece'
ldlbc tolbetna % 61beti - Sdlobti 'box'
balta baltetna balteti - baletti 'axe'
basla bastctna basteti 'display table'
Santa santctna Santeti 'briefcase'

Cf. also fekertak 'your idea', tabeltin ' t w o d r u m s ' baltetSn - balettSn 'two axes',
bdsteto 'his t a b l e ' . Vowel H a r m o n y applies to the metathetic alternants of the stems
meaning ' r o o m ' and ' b o x ' ,
(b) N o u n s consisting of a reduplicated C E C syllable, for example,
 64 C. DOUGLAS JOHNSON

X myX

semsem semcsmi 'sesame'

meSmeS rneSmeSi - mesemSi 'apricots'

sensen senseni 'Sen-Sen*'

felfel felfeli 'pepper'

Cf. also n o u n s derived from this type by addition of the suffix -e/a, for example,
semesme 'sesame seed', mesemse 'apricot' felfele (•* felefle) 'pepperkorn'.
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(c) Adjectives and participles of the form m £ + C C E C , where m £ is a prefix, for

example,

masculine feminine

metlez melelze 'snowy'

mesreS meser l a 'speedy'

mesnes meSense" 'lucky'

medxen medxene - medexne 'smoky'

meSmes meSmese - mesemse 'sunny'

meJ S er mes i era 'hairy'

mebker mebkera 'early'

Cf. also the n o u n mdkonse 'broom', which probably has the underlying
representation / m o + knes + e / (root k-n-s 'sweep').
It is clear from these d a t a that Metathesis applies after the Basic Stress Rule.
Consider the following two logically possible derivations:

fekreti (underlying) fekreti (underlying)

fekreti (Basic Stress Rule) fekerti (Metathesis)

fekerti (Metathesis) • fekerti (Basic Stress Rule)

T h e correct ordering, seen in the left-hand derivation, produces numerous surface

violations of the Basic Stress Rule. T h e segmental composition of fekerti, for
example, would lead one to expect * fekirti instead.
- T h e variables which govern the applicability of Metathesis in the permitted
categories (a)-(c) are imperfectly understood at this time. There is, in the first place,

1. T h e form is uncertain because o n e expects the -e/a suffix t o appear as a after an emphatic consonant.
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 65

a great deal of free variation which rarely entered F H ' s awareness. For example,
both Sd?feti and saefti were elicited many days apart and finally the following
exchange took place:

CDJ: [How d o you say] 'my piece'?

F H : Sa?feti.
C D J : [Did you say] 'Saefti'?
F H : Yeah ... o h , I heard 'em the same.
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Secondly, there is some idiosyncratic lexical behavior. F H claimed, for example,

that 16? be acted differently according to whether it meant ' t o y ' , ' g a m e ' , (pi.
9
alTab) or 'doll' (pi. 16 f ab); thus 16 Sobto 'his toy, g a m e ' but Idfbeto 'his doll'.
A third controlling variable may be the type of consonant cluster involved.
Consider nouns of category (a), which have the form C V C C e t - before a suffix. a b

Twenty five of the twenty nine clusters observed in the C C a b position at least
sometimes allowed the metathetic change to C V C E C t - prevocalically, and none of
a b

those twenty five consisted of homorganic n o n a p p r o x i m a n t s . Of the four clusters

which never allowed Metathesis, one was hz (lahzeto 'his pronunciation') and the
others were the h o m o r g a n i c (in fact dental) n o n a p p r o x i m a n t clusters st, nt, nd (two
of which are exemplified above). Going on to consider stems of categories (b) and
(c), which have the basic form C V C C E C , we find a more confused picture in the
a b c

exiguous d a t a available. Of those sequences observed in the C C E C position, the a b c

following at least sometimes allowed the metathetic change of the stem into
C V C E C C in prevocalic position: xles, Snes, SmeS, Smes, sref,
a b c tlez, dhen, dxen,
knes, If el, msem, zyet, stey. The remaining observed sequences, which did not allow
Metathesis, were nsen, er, zfez, bker, bher, bte . 7
Nevertheless, we still find
that the one homorganic nonapproximant cluster observed in the C C position in a b

categories (b) and (c), namely ns, behaves as expected in not ever being broken up
by a metathetic vowel.
As far as is known, Metathesis never takes place outside of the categories
mentioned. In particular, Metathesis was never observed in any of the following:
(d) N o u n s of the form C o C C o C in which all the consonants are part of the root
and all are distinct, for example:

without suffix with suffix

fosto 1
'nuts' f o s t o ' a 'nut'

' o n f o d 'ground squirrel' (?) ' o n f o d i n 'two ground squirrels'

f o n d o ' 'hotel' fdndo'i 'my hotel'

 66 C DOUGLAS JOHNSON

In all but one of the five recorded nouns in this category the internal cluster
consisted of homorganic (in fact dental) n o n a p p r o x i m a n t s . Hence the absence of
Metathesis here may have a largely phonetic basis.
(e) Plural nouns of the form ? a C C e C e , for example dlbese 7
'clothes', ?ds ele
?

'questions', d f m e d e 'poles'.
7

( 0 Verbs, for example bekseru 'they b r e a k ' , yodrosu '(that) they s t u d y ' , btektebi
'you (fern.) write', bodxolu 'they enter', be T melu 'they m a k e ' , bimseko 'he grasps
h i m ' , behmelak 'he lifts y o u ' , btez VezTni 'you (fern.) annoy m e ' , bodobuha 'they
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ask (for) it (fern.)'. Never in the speech of F H or the other two speakers studied,
whether in elicitation, monologue, or dialogue, did there occur forms as bekesru,
yodorsu, btiketbi, bodoxlu, and so on. In this respect their dialect differs strikingly
from many others reported in the cited literature.
Observe, finally, that any C C E C sequence in the context + V must either
remain as it is or metathesize to C E C C . In some dialects a simple reduction to C C C
is possible in some cases (cf. Brockelmann 1908:90; Bauer 1926:14, 22; Cowell
1964:28, 3 1 ; Cantineau 1960:114; Janssens 1972:91,92), but never in the variety of
Arabic spoken by F H .
T o summarize, Metathesis (1) is confined to nominals in which C C a b is
heterorganic or contains an approximant. Even within this restricted domain it does
not apply universally, being restricted by lexical, morphological, phonetic, a n d / o r
r a n d o m variables that need further investigation. There appears, furthermore, to
be no other syllable-altering processes that affect stem-final C C E C . We must
reproduce these peculiar conditions if we now try to resolve Metathesis into two
Stages, say Metathetic Deletion (reduction of C C E C to C C C ) and Metathetic
Insertion (expansion of C C C to C E C C ) . In particular every form must now be
susceptible to Metathetic Deletion to exactly the same degree as it was susceptible to
Metathesis. For example, just as the application of Metathesis to / f e k r + et + i / ,
/ ? o l b + et + i / , and / b a s t + et + i / was respectively obligatory, optional, and
forbidden, so now must be the application of Metathetic Deletion. Otherwise we
might obtain *jikreti or * bdsefti or fail to obtain some actually occurring form, as
the reader can verify. Metathetic Insertion must next apply to every triconsonantal
cluster created by Metathetic Deletion. Otherwise we might obtain such
nonoccurring forms *fekrti, *nezmti, * Sdlbti, *semsmi, *metlze, and the like.
Since, however, triconsonantal clusters d o not in general occur at the end of stems,
we can probably formulate this rule in a very general way. In other words,
Metathetic Deletion, but not Metathetic Insertion, needs to incorporate all of the
special quirks previously attributed to Metathesis, as in the following formulations:
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 67

(2) Metathetic Deletion (partly optional):

E - 0/VC C„ a C + V...]
c n o m i n a l

where E is unstressed, C C is not a homorganic cluster of n o n a p p r o x i m a n t s ,

a b

and certain other lexical, morphological, a n d / o r phonetic criteria are

satisfied.
(3) Metathetic Insertion (obligatory): 0 -> E / C CC +

T h e question now is whether these rules can be identified with some other,
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independently known rules which effect insertions and deletions in the final
syllables of nominal stems. The only two rules known to d o so o n a regular basis are
Syncope and Anaptyxis, which we next examine.

3. Syncope regularly deletes E in the context VC C V . T h e effects of this rule can

be seen in the third column of the following examples.

mesek mesek na mesko

'he grasped' 'he grasped us' 'he grasped him'

fehem fehem na fehmu

'he understood' 'he understood us' 'they understood'

beiaweb bezawebni bez&wbo

'he answers' 'he answers me' 'he answers him'

bokol bokolhom boklu

'he eats' 'he eats them* 'they eat'

simeV same T kom s i m ^ <ik

'(is) hearing' '(is) hearing you (pi.)' '(is) hearing you'

kateb katebkom k i t bo

•clerk' 'your(pl.) clerk' 'his clerk'

siheb sahcbna sShbak

'friend' 'our friend' 'your friend'

makanes makanesha makansi

'brooms' 'her brooms' 'my b r o o m s '

^atel Ratlin

'bad' •bad(pl.)'

hSmed himda
 68 C. D O U G L A S J O H N S O N

'sour' 'sour (fern.)'

The presuffixal allomorph -et of the derivational suffix -e/a provides further
examples:

sazara Sazarethom Sazarti

'tree' 'their tree' 'my tree'

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hondo^a bondo'etna bondo ten ?

'hazel nut' 'our hazel nut' 'two hazel nuts'

madbaha madbahetna madbahti

'slaughter' 'our slaughter' 'my slaughter'

Sele Seletkom

'family' 'your (pi.) family' 'my family'

'oda 'odetha 'Odtin

'room' 'her room' 'two r o o m s '

salime salametkom salimtak

'well-being' 'your (pi.) well-being' 'your well-being'

sayySra sayyaretna sayyarto

'car' 'our car' 'his car'

Syncope has a few lexical exceptions, presumably classicisms, where it never

applies at all, for example, mottdheda 'united', idmeS a 'university', ntibeya
'genius', $dmede 'rectors'. Variation was observed only in moxtdlefe — moxtdlfe
'differing'. Outside of such cases Syncope is fully obligatory and always applies in
the context V C CV regardless of the identity of the consonants and
irrespective of morphological class. In these respects Syncope contrasts sharply with
the highly variable and complexly restricted rule of Metathesis and hence also with
the putative first stage of that rule, Metathetic Deletion (2). In fact Syncope and
Metathetic Deletion differ so extensively in their detailed conditions as to resist any
simplifying conflation. In particular, the two rules cannot be regarded as special
cases of a general and unrestricted process deleting unstressed E in all open syllables
(proposed for example by Brame 1971, 1973, 1974, basing himself on A b d o 1969, in
connection with M u k a b b i r ) . Such a process would produce m a n y incorrect forms,
deleting, for example, the penultimate vowel of bdsteti, Sdnteti, fdlfeli, yddrosu,
and btektebi.
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 69

4. Variable loci of application. A more complex situation arises in the following:

X our X my X
tswla tawletna tawelti 'table'
sahbe sahbetna sahebti 'female friend'
tayfe tayfetna layefti 'congregation'
falafle falafletna falafelti 'falafel'
dakatra dakatretna dakaterti 'doctors'

Cf. also tSwlethom 'their table', tawiltak 'your table'; sahbitkom

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'your(pl.) female friend', sahebto 'his female friend'. T o derive these forms we
must assume underlying representations of the form (CV)CVC + e / a , presuffixal
(CV)CVC + et-, for example,

tawel + a tSwel + et + na tiwel + et + i (underlying)

tawel + a tawel + et + na [Swel + et + i (Basic Stress Rule)
iawl + a tawl + et + na tawel + t + i (Syncope)
tawel + t + i (Shortening)

W h e n two successive unstressed E occur in the context VC CV it is usually

the second that is deleted (right-to-left application); for example, the duals which
are underlyingly /falafel + et + <m/ and /tawel + et + e n / are prefably pronounced
falafeltin 'two falafels' and taweltin 'two tables'. However, the directionality of
Syncope is somewhat variable. While falafeltin had no competing variant, taweltin
was sometimes heard as tawletin, produced by left-to-right application.
T h e alternations exhibited by such nouns as (Swla closely resemble those
produced by Metathesis. The only distinguishing feature is stress, which effectively
prevents us from identifying the two types of alternation. We cannot, for example,
assume an underlying representation such as /{awl + et + i / , parallel with
/ f e k r + et + i / , because * tawelti would be generated. Nor can we assume an
underlying representation such as /feker + et + i / , parallel with / t a w e l - f e t + i / ,
because * fekerti would be generated. Different treatments are necessary to derive
the correct forms tawelti and fekerti, and in particular Syncope alone cannot
entirely take over the functions of Metathesis.
T h e next set of forms illustrate the interaction between Syncope and Metathesis.

X ourX myX
semesme semsemetna semscmti 'sesame seed'
mesemse meSmesctna mesmeSti 'apricot'
mokonse mokonsetna moknesti 'broom'
 70 C DOUGLAS JOHNSON

In section 2, relying on related forms and known derivational patterns, we

maintained that these nouns consisted of a stem of the shape C V C C V C plus the
derivational suffix -e/a. T h e above paradigmatic evidence fully confirms this
contention. T h e n o u n glossed as ' b r o o m ' , for example, is derived in its various
forms as follows:

m o + knes + e m o + knes + el + na m o + k n e s + et + i (underlying)

m o + knes + e rno + k n e s + et + n a m o + knes + et + i (Basic Stress Rule)
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m o + kens + e m o + kens + et + na (Metathesis)

m o + knes + t + i (Syncope)
m o + kons + e m o + kons + et + na (Vowel Harmony)

In these derivations Syncope and Metathesis could apply in either order so long as
they follow the Basic Stress Rule. To determine whatever ordering there is we must
find strings in which unstressed candidates for Syncope and Metathesis coexist. I
give four such examples.

underlying surface

/ s e m s e m + et + e n / semsemten 'two sesame seeds'

/mesmeS + et + in/ meSmestin 'two apricots'

/felfel + el + e n / felfelten 'two peppercorns'

/ m o + knes + et + e n / mokonseten 'two brooms'

T h e first three words suggest that Syncope precedes and bleeds Metathesis, while
the last word suggests just the opposite. Variable (lexically determined?) ordering
might be an explanation, but we can also assume that Metathesis consistently
precedes Syncope, simply failing to apply to the first three words. In fact the stems
contained in the first three words tend to disfavor Metathesis in pretonic position
even when there is no question of Syncope applying; hence usually semsemetna
(semesmetna questionable), meimese'tna (meSemsitna perhaps possible), felfeletna
(felefletna not recorded), despite semesme, misemSe, and possibly felefle (though
usually felfele). O n the other h a n d the stem meaning ' b r o o m ' seems to undergo
Metathesis whenever it can, hence mokonse and mokonsetna, never * mdknese or
* moknesetna. It is true that mokonsetin had a possible variant moknestin, but the
former was far m o r e natural for F H .
T h e ordering relations between Syncope and • Metathesis must of course be
reproduced between Syncope and Metathetic Deletion. If these two rules constitute
cases of the same rule, the abbreviatory devices conflating them will have to predict
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 71

that Metathetic Deletion precedes Syncope. And indeed the angle bracket notation
of formulation (4) would d o just that in the formalism of C h o m s k y and Halle
(1968:76-77).

(4) E - 0/V<C >C a b C < + >V...]

c < n o m i n a l > < p a r t l y optional>
where E is unstressed < , C C is not homorganic cluster of n o n a p p r o x i m a n t s ,
a b

and certain other lexical, morphological, and phonetic criteria are satisfied > .
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Directionality, alien t o Chomsky and Halle, must be grafted o n t o this rule.

J o h n s o n (1972) assumes without further argument that a rule proceeds in a
particular direction as a unit, and the more subtle algorithm of H o w a r d (1972)
seems, as far as I can tell, to have the same effect on rule (4). T h u s rule (4) would
have to scan and change the input string in a single right-to-left (or in some cases
left-to-right) pass. Unfortunately this proposal must explain / m o + knes + et + e n /
-* mokonseten, the preferred derivation, as the result of two separate accidents.
Not only must we assume as before that Metathetic Deletion, now in the guise of t h e
first case of rule (4), is obligatory for this n o u n , but also that the n o u n is unique in
demanding obligatory left-to-right application of (4). If either condition fails we
generate the questionable form moknestin. We conclude that directional theory
must be revised to allow the first case, representing Metathetic Deletion and
including the angle-bracketed material, to apply wherever it can before any attempt
is m a d e to apply the second case, which represents Syncope and lacks the ang­
le-bracketed material. Directionality is then attributed separately t o the two cases.
Alternatively, we might leave directional theory alone and conclude that rule (4) is
an illegitimate conflation.

5. Anaptyxis. Many nominals have alternating stem shapes CVCfiC and C V C C in

which the E of the first alternant is never stressed. Otherwise the alternation much
resembles that produced by Syncope, the shorter alternant being chosen before a
suffix beginning with a vowel. A n example is e~sem ' n a m e ' , ?6smi 'my n a m e ' ,
?

?esmak 'your n a m e ' , ">£semna 'our n a m e ' , ?esemkom 'your (pi.) n a m e ' . A n o t h e r
example, showing a harmonicallly rounded vowel, is ?6mor 'life', ?6mrak 'your
life', fdmorna 'our life'. In this type of n o u n the underlying alternant cannot be
CVCfiC, for otherwise we would find the fi sometimes stressed, for example in
* es6mna,
7
* esemkom,
?
* fomdrna. Syncope cannot therefore account for t h e
alternation. We are apparently dealing rather with an underlying representation of
the form C V C C and a rule of Anaptyxis which inserts
E into the context C C{ # , + C} after stress has been assigned, for example
 72 C. DOUGLAS JOHNSON

7
esm + na -* esm + na -» isem
7 7
+ na. T h e E harmonizes in r o u n d i n g with the
(short) vowel of the preceding syllable in all known cases except xdbez 'bread'.
M a n y n o u n s have an invariant shape C V C C , for example bint 'girl', binti 'my
girl', bintna ' o u r girl'. This shape is obviously underlying here too and m u s t
somehow be distinguished from the case where Anaptyxis takes place. There is in
fact a rule, though not a perfectly simple one, for distinguishing those stem-final
clusters which admit A n a p t y x i s , call them set /4, from those stem-final clusters
which d o not (the complement of A). First, all stem-final consonant clusters which
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contain a laryngeal continuant ( 9, h, h) or end in a (voiced) sonorant are in the set

A. Hence anaptyctic E appears in the following citation forms, where the
underlying cluster precedes a word b o u n d a r y : si?er 'cost', s i 9 e b 'difficult',
kohol ' k o h l ' , mdhed ' c r a d l e ' , dihen 'grease', robof 'one q u a r t e r ' , deref 'shield',
mileh 'salt', sdteh ' r o o f , 9 d d e m ' b o n e s ' , hilem ' d r e a m ' , dser 'castle', idmer 7
'hot
c o a l s ' , hdbel ' r o p e ' , rdmel ' s a n d ' , sizen ' p r i s o n ' , sdmen 'clarified b u t t e r ' . A
stem-final cluster which consists of a coronal sonorant plus a nonlaryngeal
obstruent belongs to the complement of A, hence the absence of any anaptyctic
vowel in ? a / / ' t h o u s a n d ' , kdlb ' d o g ' , tdlt 'one third' hdrf 'letter of the a l p h a b e t ' ,
ddrs 'lesson', 6 r s 'disk', hdrS 'forest', drd ' e a r t h ' , ydrb 'west', bint
7 7
'girl', idnb
' s i d e ' , s ans, ' l u c k ' . These generalizations are supported by m a n y examples and have
n o clear exceptions. The remaining observed clusters, with one exception, can each
be assigned unambiguously to A or to its complement, b u t not according to any
clear-cut well-supported principle. It happens that all observed nonlaryngeal
voiceless obstruent clusters are in the complement of A, for example tdxt ' b e d ' , Sdxs
' p e r s o n ' , moSt ' c o m b ' , ist ' t u i t i o n ' . The few other nonlaryngeal obstruent clusters
7

behave as in the following examples: hizeb 'political p a r t y ' , xdbez 'bread', libes
' c l o t h i n g ' , el- 6ds
7
' J e r u s a l e m ' , es-sdbt ' S a t u r d a y ' . Some clusters containing t h e
glottal stop are in A, others are not, for example wd t 7
' t i m e ' , sd ef 7
'ceiling', fdr 7

'difference', 9ib 7
'burden', Site 7
'precious fellow', boto 7
' s l o w ' . Only ms is
inconsistent, being subject t o Anaptyxis in some stems but not in others, for
example Sams ' s u n ' , xdmos~xoms 'one fifth', xdmes 'five'.
Having defined the cluster set A we can formulate Anaptyxis as follows:

(5) A n a p t y x i s : 0 -» E / C . a .C { # , + C } where C C is in A .
b a b

This rule bears a close resemblance t o Metathetic Insertion (4), which can be recast
as follows:

(6) 0 - M/C r
.C C+
b where C C is in B .
a b
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 73

T h e problem of conflating Anaptyxis and Metathetic Insertion then reduces to

reconciling the sets A and B and the different roles of the boundaries. A is the fixed,
unalterable set previously defined. B on the other h a n d must include all clusters
after which Metathetic Deletion is possible, but it may harmlessly include other
clusters as well. Consequently we can set A =B if and only if A as already defined
includes all those clusters after which Metathetic Deletion (2) is possible. In fact, A
already includes m a n y clusters which must be in B; for example, the clusters
supposedly b r o k e n up by Metathetic Insertion in fekerti, neiemti, tdbelti, mitelze,
mesense, mokonse, and sd^efti are all in A or presumed to be in A because of their
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phonetic structure. But we find also that Metathetic Insertion has applied in the
second column of the following example:

S'elke 'chewing g u m ' S e l e k t i 'my chewing g u m '

b*rke 'swimming p o o l ' berekto 'his swimming pool'

yorfe 'room' Tdrofti 'my room'

balla 'axe' baletlen 'two axes'

T o l b e 'box' <T61obti 'my box'

rabta 'knot' rabetten 'two knots'

In the first five words of the right-hand column, Metathetic Insertion has
supposedly placed an E between a coronal sonorant and a nonlaryngeal obstruent,
although n o k n o w n clusters of that form are members of A. C o m p a r e especially
hdrf(na) '(our) letter of the alphabet', toll ' o n e t h i r d ' , kdlb(na) '(our) d o g ' , in
which Anaptyxis does not take place. In the last example of the right-hand column
Metathetic Insertion has placed an E inside a bt cluster, which seems an unlikely
member of A in view of es-s&bt ' S a t u r d a y ' .
T h e cluster sets A and B, then, cannot be equated, n o r can B be included in A.
T h e best conflation that seems possible, therefore, is the following:

(7) 0 -* E / C „ C { # , C}( + ) where if a = - then C C is in A.

b tt a b

T h e context of this rule expands t o the following four cases: C C# +

(impossible case), C a C # (Anaptyxis in a word-final cluster), C
b CC +
(Metathetic Insertion), C a C C (Anaptyxis in a word-medial cluster).
b

6. Reanalysis of Anaptyxis. Elsewhere ( J o h n s o n , 1979) I have argued that

 74 C. D O U G L A S J O H N S O N

Anaptyxis probably n o longer exists as a distinct rule in F H ' s dialect. T h e

reasoning, augmented here by d a t a about Metathesis, can be summarized as
follows. It happens that anaptyctic and metathetic £ occur only between root
consonants in a nominal and then only in the underlying context VC , while
an original underlying unmetathesized £ does so only in a few cases which are
becoming like anaptyctic or metathetic £ in their stress behavior. Therefore the
stress rule can be reformulated as follows:
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(8) New Stress Rule:

(a) Place stress on the antepenultimate syllable of any nominal of the
form . . . V C E C C V ( C ) where C is nonaffixal.
b b

(b) Otherwise apply the Basic Stress Rule of section 1.

But then anaptyctic £ can be regarded as underlying and its alternation with zero
accounted for by Syncope, as in the following examples:

'name' 'my name' 'our name'

'esm 9
esm + i 9
e s m + na (former underlying)
*>esem 7
esem + i ?esem + na (new underlying)
'esem 'esem + i ' e s e m + na (New Stress Rule)
'esm + i Syncope

T h e reader can verify that this scheme will derive the words previously cited in this
paper (given a rule of Metathesis), provided that the stress rule occupies its former
position in the ordering. Note that £ is stressed normally if it is in a verb (mesekna
'he grasped u s ' ) , preceded by a consonant cluster (mesmesna 'our apricots'),
preceded by underlying V C (sahibna < / s a h e b + n a / 'our friend'), or followed by
an affixal c o n s o n a n t (madbahetna 'our slaughter').
T h e only observed exceptions to the New Stress Rule involve the n o u n mdlek
' k i n g ' ; for example, malekna ought to be stressed mdlekna. In fact, mdlekna is a
frequent s p o n t a n e o u s variant of malekna and thus only supports our reanalysis of
stress. Anaptyxis, furthermore, cannot explain all instances of anomalous
antepenultimate stress. First, the variant mdlekna seems an improbable surface
representation of / m a l k + n a / because Ik is presumably immune t o Anaptyxis,
consisting as it does of a coronal sonorant plus a nonlaryngeal obstruent. Second,
the vowel pattern C a C e C characterizing the gerund of m a n y verbs has fixed stress
on the first syllable regardless of what suffix is appended, for example, Sdreh(na)
'(our) explaining', rdked(na) '(our) r u n n i n g ' , tdbex(na) '(our) c o o k i n g ' , ddres(na)
'(our) studying', tdred(na) '(our) kicking o u t ' , idrej(na) '(our) scooping a w a y ' ,
 V O W E L - C O N S O N A N T M E T A T H E S I S IN P A L E S T I N I A N 75

ddreb(na) '(our) beating'. T h e first and possibly the second and third examples can
be analyzed as containing an underlying stem of the form / C a C C / to which
Anaptyxis applies, but the remaining four examples resist that kind of analysis
because Anaptyxis should not apply between a coronal sonorant and a nonlaryngeal
obstruent. C o m p a r e , for example, the ordinary nouns ddrs 'lesson', ward ' r o s e s ' ,
hdrf 'letter of the a l p h a b e t ' , ydrb 'west'. If we assume that gerunds have on the
contrary an underlying representation C a C e C we can derive all the surface forms,
provided we employ the New Stress Rule.
If Anaptyxis is not a rule then of course it is not available for conflation with
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Metathetic Insertion, which then stands alone. The New Stress Rule does, however,
reopen the possibility of assigning all the functions of Metathesis to Syncope. This
idea is appealing because one can derive such segmental configurations as fekerti,
meSemse, moknesti, and tdwetti by right-to-left application of Syncope to the
parallel underlying representations /feker + et + i / , /mesemes + e/,
/ m o + k o n e s + et + i / , and /tawel + et + i / . The New Stress Rule will then apply
correctly to the representations so derived, yielding fekerti, meSemSe, mokne'sti,
and towelti (> tawelti).
If the New Stress Rule applied directly to the revised underlying representations
/feker + et + i / and /mesemes'+ e / it would yield fekereti and mesemeSe, which
would then syncopate to the incorrect forms * fekerti and * meSemse. Syncope,
then, must apply as the first rule in this approach. This circumstance creates certain
difficulties. We previously explained the differential variability of /tawel + et + i/
-» tawelti and / t a w e l + et + e n / -» taweltin — tawletin as a consequence of
Syncope's applying only to unstressed E and having no determinate direction when
faced with two successive unstressed Es. Now, though, if Syncope applies prior t o
stress assignment, the same indeterminacy will produce the nonoccurring variation
tawelti - * tswleti, while fixed right-to-left application will fail ever to generate
tawletin. Other plausible modes of application are worse: Fixed left-to-right
produces * tdwleti but not tawilti, simultaneous produces * tSwlti, and r a n d o m
iterative produces all the cited variants, correct and incorrect, except *tawlti.
A related difficulty afflicts meSmeSetna versus mdSemSe. We previously explained
these forms by a feature (common to several nouns of this type) which prevented
Metathesis from applying in pretonic position. Now we must assume underlying
representations /mesemes'+ et + n a / and /mesemes + e / and ensure that Syncope
proceeds from left-to-right through the first form and from right-to-left through
the second. T h e position of the stress again seems to be a clear differentiating
condition: In nouns with stems like /mesemesX + e ) / Syncope proceeds from either
extremity of the word toward the (unaffected) stressed vowel. Unfortunately,
however, our present proposal requires Syncope to apply before stress is assigned.
A final difficulty is illustrated by the paradigm of mokonse. Right-to-left
 76 C. DOUGLAS JOHNSON

Syncope will straightforwardly convert / m o + kones + e / , / m o + kones + et + i / , and

/ m o + kones + et + n a / into mokonse, moknesti, and mokonsetna, which then will
receive their correct stresses (mokonse, moknesti, mokonsetna) by the New Stress
Rule. But Syncope, n o matter which direction it applies in, cannot derive
mokonseten from / m o + kones + et + e n / . In this word, at least, Syncope must
apply precisely to the second of three successive £ in the context V C CV.
There is n o other evidence in F H ' s speech to support such a peculiar condition.
Even if it were valid it would have to be restricted to three successive £ which end
up unstressed or pretonic; otherwise / m o + kones + et + i/ would surface as
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* mokdnseti. But the restriction is not very useful since stress is still undetermined
when Syncope applies.

7. Conclusion. With some ingenuity one can resolve Metathesis into a deletion and
an insertion and even conflate each stage with an independently known rule. But
neither conflation results in a single simpler rule, and the independent rule of
insertion may n o longer be a synchronic reality in F H ' s dialect. An alternative
suggested by the synchronic facts would treat Metathesis as a result of applying
Syncope in different places, but this approach fails to account properly for some
forms. On the other hand Metathesis is easily represented as a single separate rule in
F H ' s dialect. It may well be that Metathesis is the synchronic residue of two
diachronic changes, one of them an imperfectly generalized Syncope and the other
an overgeneralized Anaptyxis, but if so the two processes have become so
interdependent in the course of time as to be inseparable.

References

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