Examples:
(See Comments
for key to special characters used.) |
|
| culus + aa |
---> |
cuslaa |
'he was heavy' |
| duman + ay |
---> |
dunmay |
'got organized' |
| neceb + ayd |
---> |
nebcayd |
'she disliked it' |
|
|
Conditions: |
|
Metathesis is conditioned by syncope. |
|
Motivation: |
|
No information currently available. |
|
Related processes: |
|
a. Syncope Nouns of Declension 3 and verbs of Conjugation 3b regularly
lose the stem-final vowel.
| gabadh |
'girl' |
+ -o |
> |
gabdho |
'girls' |
| hayso |
'have' |
+ -teen |
> |
haysteen |
'they possessed' |
In some verbs and adjectives, a final short vowel drops out when
morphemes are added to the root.
| hadal |
'talk' |
+ -ay |
> hadlay |
'(he) talked' |
| ladan |
'good' |
+ ahay 'I am' |
> ladnahay |
'I feel find' |
Vowel loss does not occur if the resulting word would have three
consonants together.
| orod + -tay |
> orodday *ordtay |
'(she) ran' |
|
|
Comments: |
|
Special Symbols:
c = voiced pharyngeal fricative
x = voiceless pharyngeal fricative
j = voiced or voiceless palato-alveolar affricate
Last updated: 2/25/2001
|
|
References: |
|
Zorc, R. David Paul & Madina M. Osman. 1993. Somali-English
dictionary with English index. Dunwoody Press: Kensington, Md.
|
