Re: Metathesis?

Roger Mills wrote:

>Tom H.C. wrote:
>
>
>>I don't know if this helps;
>>but there has been longer-distance metathesis than that, hasn't there?
>>
>>miraglo --> milagro
>>periglo --> peligro
>>
>>and, I'm not sure, but ISTR something about a cognate for the
>>word "pilgrim" also?
>>
>>
>>
>Lat. peregrinus, Span. peregrino (learnèd loan?) but Fr. pelerin (vs.
>perelinage 'pilgrimage' IIRC; uncertain about the accent marks) and Ital.
>pellegrino.
>
Yep - I am fairly sure the Spanish is  learned loan. The French &
Italian are examples of _dissimilation_ - they have nothing to do with
metathesis. The English 'pilgrim' is from an Old French 'pelegrin' with
the same dissimilation.

We find with Latin 'arbor' (tree) that strangely, French keeps both Rs,
with this time Italian dissimilates as does Spanish:
Fr. arbre; It. albero; Sp. árbol

> OTOH for miracle and danger Ital. has miracolo and pericolo, no
>change. The Span. at least seems to have to do with *l--r sequences in
>polysyllables (?).
>
>
The Spanish words are examples of metathesis, as Tom says. Spoonerisms
indeed are also examples of metathesis, but they don't become lixed in
fanguage   :-)

>Writers on Spanish often comment on the difficulty native speakers have with
>"atlántico", usu. > altántico  :-)))
>
>
I suspect many languages have problems with -tl- . I can well imagine
not only colloquial Spanish resorts to metathesis to 'regularize' the
'unnatural' combination. It would not surprise me if such metathesis had
been recorded in some English idiolects.
--

Ray
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