KASEM
Burkina Faso and Ghana; Niger-Congo, Gur		 For more information about metathesis in this language, click on the following links:
Summary:
Chomsky and Halle (1968) posit a VV metathesis rule in Kasem whereby the first and second vowels metathesize if the second and third vowels are not [a]:

[+voc, -cons]   [-cons]   [+voc, -cons]
           1               2                3
---->    2   1    3
  except when 2 = 3= [a]

Phelps (1975) argues against the claim that there is VV metathesis in the langauge.  

To our knowledge, there are no productive cases of VV metathesis.
 
Examples
Conditions
Motivation
Additional info
Comments
References
Examples:
(See Comments for key to special characters used.)
Chomksy and Halle (1968) make use of a rule of VV metathesis to derive forms like the following: 
                               sg.         pl.                        sg.              pl. 
UR                      pia + a    pia + i   'sheep'        babia + a    babia + i   'brave' 
Velar Elision 
Metathesis                         pai + i                                       babai + i
Truncation           pi + a     pa +i                        babi + a     baba + i 
Contraction                       pe                                             babe 
Glide Formation
Surface form        [pia]       [pe]                          [babia]        [babe]

 
Conditions:
No information currently available.
Motivation:
No information currently available.
Additional information:
No additional information currently available.
Comments:

Special Symbols:

N = velar nasal

Last updated: 10/11/2002
References:
Callow, John. 1965. Collected Field Reports on the Phonology of Kasem. The Institute of African Studies. University of Ghana.
Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle. 1969. The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper Row.
Haas, Wim G. de. 1988. Phonological implications of skeleton and feature underspecification in Kasem. Phonology 5: 237-254.
Phelps, Elaine. 1975. Simplicity criteria in generative phonology: Kasem nominals. Linguistic Analysis 1: 297-332.
Phelps, Elaine. 1979. Abstractness and Rule Ordering in Kasem: A Refutation of Halle's Maximizing Principle. Linguistic Analysis 5 (1): 29-68.