2135: Metathesis as a Grammatical Feature Oct 19, 2020

Metathesis is a process that can affect words from any language, and involves the sounds internally moving around, but not every language does it for the same reason. Some fairly innocuous English examples include 'nuclear' to something like 'nucular' /ˈnjuːkjʊlər/ or 'asterisk' like 'asterix' /ˈæstərɪks/. In Hebrew, there are a few examples of this in loanwords like נמל (namél) from the Greek λιμήν (limḗn), and how the Bible contains both כֶּֽבֶשׂ‎ (keves) and כֶּֽשֶׂב‎ (kesev) to mean 'lamb'. Moreover even in normal cases it is actually a part of the grammar. The binyan hitpael used for reflexive verbs actually demonstrates metathesis with the prefix (hit-) and the first consonant of the stem when there is an alveolar fricative. For instance, this occurs with:

סכל‎ (skl) --> הִסְתַּכֵּל‎ (histakkēl) = "he looked at..."

where the T (תַּ) follows the S (ס), but this does not happen with

לבש‎ (lbš) --> הִתְלַבֵּש‎ (hitlabbēš) = "he got dressed"