metathesis in technical terminology

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bbeeton
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metathesis in technical terminology

Postby bbeeton » Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:40 pm

Metathesis is a great and well known driver of linguistic change.

I'm sure we've all heard "nucular" instead of "nuclear", but today I heard a medical doctor, a specialist in infectious diseases, no less, pronounce "omicron" as "omricon". (He said it more than once in an interview, so I'm not just making this up.)

Are technical terms, often based on non-English sources, more susceptible to such modification more "common" words, or am I just more sensitive to such changes?

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Dr. Goodword
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Re: metathesis in technical terminology

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Jan 23, 2022 8:50 am

Particularly popular is "liquid metathesis". Rs and Ls are considered "liquids" in linguistics. They undergo metathesis all the time in English: prescriptionperscription, foliage foilage, comfortable comfterble. Historically, liquid metathesis defines the difference between words in different IE languages: cold in English is hladan in Serbian, the same PIE word that came up in English as garden, emerged in Serbian as grad "city". However, other kinds of metathesis exist, too, e.g. askaks which has its been around for centuries.

By the way, metathesis is a Good Word: https://www.alphadictionary.com/goodwor ... metathesis
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bbeeton
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Posts: 552
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:34 am
Location: Providence, RI

Re: metathesis in technical terminology

Postby bbeeton » Sun Jan 23, 2022 8:07 pm

Well, I'm familiar with "aks" -- I grew up in Baltimore ("Bawlamer, Merlin") -- so some of the other joys of the local dialect must also be examples of metathesis of a "different sort".

Take, for example, "pixture" and "chimbley". I'm not sure those are still current; I moved north more than fifty years ago. The last time I visited, it seemed that the local speech had a more distinctly southern color to it. But in the dialect I grew up with, "The Night Before Christmas" was quite delightful.


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