First week back, the SameSky students are telling each other about their holidays. Two of my students went to Portugal, and told their classes, respectively in Spanish and in German about the wonderful food, not least the cod. There is something remarkable about this word:
· Cod in Spanish is el bacalao
· Cod in German is der Kabeljau
Can you see what has happened here? It’s the same word, but the letters are switched around! Does anyone share my excitement about this?! It’s an example of Metathesis.
This is a relatively rare linguistic phenomenon where the order of sounds in a word changes between languages, or over time in any given language.
Have you ever heard a child mispronouncing spaghetti and calling it “Pasketti”? Or saying “hostipal” instead of “hospital?”
This is metathesis.
Some more examples that occur across different languages:
· Crocodile (English) and cocodrilo (Spanish).
· Miracle (English) and milagro (Spanish).
· Palabra (Spanish for "word") and parola (Italian) / parole (French).
· Hros (Icelandic for “horse”) and “horse” (English)
And another example of an English word changing over time: Wasps used to be “wops”. That’s not the official spelling of the Old English word, but it gives you an idea of how the sound has changed.
One more example that I include with caution:
According to popular etymology, a butterfly used to be a “flutterby”. If only this were true, but unfortunately it seems that it is more of a playful invention than actually true. Shame, because it would be a perfect example of metathesis.
Andrew Wenger
SameSky Languages
Many of our groups are now full, but there are some spaces left in our French / German / Spanish groups, depending on your level. And we are in the process of setting up a new beginners' Japanese class. Contact me here for more information, or to go on the waiting list.
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