Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🔤 Sound switch ⚗️ Chemical exchange
metathetic

metathetic

1 9.9
A change in a word where two sounds or letters swap places
  • adjective
  • /ˌmɛtəˈθɛtɪk/
  • Specialized
: metatético
  • Linguists study metathetic changes to understand how languages evolve over time.

Examples

  • The word metathetic describes a specific phonetic phenomenon.

  • The word 'bird' is a metathetic form of the older English word 'brid'.

  • A metathetic process can explain why some words sound different in related languages.

  • In linguistics, a metathetic change often occurs in casual speech.

  • Some people often use the metathetic pronunciation 'aks' instead of 'ask'.

  • The linguist studied a metathetic shift in how some words are pronounced in different dialects.

  • In English, the metathetic form 'nickname' originates from the earlier 'ekename'.

Synonyms

transpositional
vsmetathetic
  • Specialized
1 8.9

About moving parts in math or grammar

focuses specifically on moving sounds or letters inside a single word

Surface Forms

metathetic positive

Morphology

metathetic = metathesis (semi-transparent) = metathesis + ic

Standard adjective formation from the noun 'metathesis' using the productive suffix '-ic', yielding 'relating to metathesis'.

Etymology

Metathetic comes from Greek parts meta- 'change' (as in metamorphosis) and tithenai 'to put', so it originally meant 'put in a different place'. That's why a metathetic change is when two letters or sounds in a word switch places, like 'brid' becoming 'bird'.