MUTSUN
(Northwestern San Bentino County, California; Costanoan)		 For more information about metathesis in this language, click on the following links:
Summary:
The nominal thematic suffix has two alternants: [-mak] and [-kma]. The former occurs after consonant-final stems, while the latter appears after vowel-final stems. In addition to the observed consonant/vowel metathesis, a reordering of suffixal consonants also occurs: the nasal precedes the obstruent in [-mak], while the reverse is observed in [-kma]. Consonant/vowel metathesis occurs regularly throughout the language.
Examples
Conditions
Motivation
Related processes
Comments
References
Examples:
Stem Gloss Nominal thematic suffix
ru:k ‘string’ ru:k-mak
kahhay ‘head louse’ kahhay-mak
rukka ‘house’ rukka-kma
sipruna ‘tule root’ sipruna-kma

Consonant/vowel metathesis is observed in the locative suffix, with the alternants [-tak] and [-tka]. 
Stem Gloss Locative suffix
lo:t 'mud’ lo:t-tak
pappel 'paper’ pappel-tak
si: 'water' si:-tka
koro: 'foot’ koro-tka

Conditions:
No data currently available.
Motivation:
No data currently available.
Related processes:
No data currently available.
Comments:
Last modified: 9/13/2000.
References:
  • Hume, Elizabeth. 1998. The Role of Perceptibility in Consonant/Consonant Metathesis. In Blake, Susan, Eun-Sook Kim, and Kimary Shahin (eds.), WCCFL XVII Proceedings. Stanford: CSLI. 293-307.
  • Okrand, Marc, 1977. Mutsun Grammar. PhD dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
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