LETI 
(Leti Island; Austronesian, Southwest Maluku)		 For more information about metathesis in this language, click on the following links:
Summary:
a. Phrase-medial metathesis: Preceding a morpheme-initial
   consonant cluster or /CVV/ sequence, the ordering of
   morpheme-final segments is consonant + vowel as the 
   result of metathesis.
b. Phrase-final metathesis: In cases of consonant-final 
    forms in phrase-final position, the final vowel and 
    consonant of a morpheme change positions. 
Examples
Conditions
Motivation
Additional info
Comments
References
Examples:
(See Comments for key to special characters used.)
a. Phrase-medial metathesis. Metathesis occurs within a phrase when a consonant-final morpheme is followed by a morpheme beginning with a consonant cluster or geminate consonant. 
 
/kunis  +  Bnutan/  kunsiBnutna ‘key  +  iron’
/ukar  +  ppalu/  ukrappalu ‘finger  +  bachelor  =  index finger’
/ulit  +  prai/  ultiprai ‘skin  +  prai’

cf. Before a morpheme-initial CV sequence, no metathesis applies and instead the surface form corresponds to the underlying consonant-final form.
 
/ukar  +  lavan/  ukar lavena  ‘finger  +  big  =  thumb, big toe’
/urun  +  mOa/  urun mOa  ‘breadfruit  +  Moanese’

b. Phrase-final metathesis.  Phrase finally, all morphemes are vowel final. This triggers metathesis of C-final morphemes.
 
UR Phrase-finally
Cf. ___# CV
/urun/  [urnu]  ‘beautiful’  [urun mOa] ‘Moanese breadfruit’
/mEsar/ [mEsra]  ‘teacher’  [mEsar lavna]  ‘teacher, big’

cf. If the morpheme is vowel-final, no metathesis applies and the phrase-final surface form is identical to the underlying form. Other phonological processes affect the final vowel in phrase-medial position, e.g. low vowel deletion, glide formation.
 
Phrase-finally
cf. Phrase-medially

rai  ‘land’  ralyavana /rai + lavan/  ‘land + to be big = continent’
lopu  ‘dolphin’ lopdwo /lopu + do/  ‘dolphin, then’

Conditions:
Metathesis is conditioned by a phrasal boundary. It is also conditioned by the segmental makeup of the morpheme undergoing metathesis (consonant-final), and that of the following morpheme (starts with a consonant cluster or geminate consonant).
Motivation:
a. Phrase-medial metathesis

    Syllable Well-formedness Condition (Hume, 1998) : With respect to metathesis before an initial consonant cluster, 
    the avoidance of tautosyllabic consonant clusters provides the impetus for change.

b. Phrase-final metathesis

    Phrasal Requirement (Hume, 1998): In phrase-final position, all morphemes end in a vowel, and this triggers a 
    phrase-final metathesis.
Additional information:
The avoidance of onsetless syllables:
i. Secondary articulation formation: As a means of resolving vowel hiatus, an unstressed high vowel may be realized as a 
   secondary articulation on an adjacent prevocalic consonant both within and across morpheme boundaries.
 
/tani + arat/  tanYarta  ‘soil + edge’
/tultulu + enu/ tultulWenu  ‘hat + turtle’

ii. Glide formation: To avoid onsetless syllables, an unstressed intervocalic high vowel is realized as a glide.
 
/rai + aan/  raya:na ‘king + diminutive = prince’
/kOkkOi + aan/ kOkkOya:na ‘child + dim. = baby’

Comments:
Special Symbols:
B = voiced bilabial fricative
O = mid back rounded vowel (open 'o')
Y = palatalization marker of a preceding consonant
W = labialization marker of a preceding consonant

Note: The view of metathesis presented above is based on Hume 1997, 1998. This approach differs from that of van Engelenhoven's in that it is assumed that there are both C-final and V-final morphemes  underlyingly. In van Engelenhoven, all morphemes are V-final.  Discussion of this latter approach, and evidence in favour of the former appear in Hume 1998, in particular.  The analysis of van der Hulst & van Engelenhoven is also discussed in that paper.

Last updated: 10/24/2001
References:
  • "Vowel Preservation in Leti." Oceanic Linguistics 36.1. 65-101. 1997.
  • Hume, Elizabeth. 1998. Metathesis in phonological theory: The case of Leti. Lingua 104. 147-186.
  • "Nonmoraic Geminates in Leti," (with J. Muller and A. van Engelenhoven).     Phonology 14.3. 371-402. 1997.
  • van der Hulst, Harry and Aone van Engelenhoven. 1995.  Metathesis effects in Leti. In Harry van der Hulst and Jeroen van de Weijer (eds.), Leiden in Last. HIL Phonology Papers I.  The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. 
  • van Engelenhoven, Aone. 1994.  A Description of the Leti language. PhD dissertation.  University of Leiden.
  • van Engelenhoven, Aone. 1996.  Metathesis and the quest for definiteness in the Leti of Tutukei (East Indonesia). In H. Steinhauer (ed.), Papers in Austronesian Linguistics 3. Pacific Linguistics. 207-215. 
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