Words with metathesis


What common Japanese words underwent metathesis (transposition of sounds)?

Examples.

> 新{あたら}しい < あらたしい  
>  秋葉原 {あきはばら} < あきばはら




I hate to turn these questions into the sawa and Matt show, but here are a
couple of interesting ones that are still "in progress":

  * 雰囲気 = ふんいき → ふいんき 

Dictionaries still list the pronunciation as "ふんいき", although some will give
"ふいんき" as an alternate version, but spoken Japanese is clearly moving towards
ふいんき. According to 日本国語大辞典, Yamaguchi Nakami reported on an [undated, but
pre-2007] survey finding that 70% of students in the Kansai area used "ふいんき"
instead of "ふんいき".

Nevertheless, it remains a shibboleth: people who know that it is originally
ふんいき feel entitled to laugh at those who don't. For example, someone on 2ch
once said "ふいんき（←なぜか変換できない）", or "ふいんき (← for some reason my IME software
won't recognize this)", not realizing that their IME software did not
recognize it because ふんいき is still the dictionary standard. Everyone found
this most amusing and it is a well-known quote now.

Another interesting thing about 雰囲気 is that you might have expected ふんにき to
appear as the alternate pronunciation instead, along the lines of しんのう for 親王
and so on. This may be because ふんいき is a relatively new word, coined during
the late Edo period (1800s) to translate the scientific concept of
"atmosphere" [hence the 囲, "surround"], only expanding to the metaphorical
meaning during the Meiji period. (This info too courtesy of 日本国語大辞典.) The
process that made しんのう out of 親王 might have already become non-productive by
then, in which case metathesis would be another good way of dealing with the
awkward んい combination.

  * simulation = シミュレーション → シュミレーション

I am not sure whether this is as widespread as ふいんき, but it is not uncommon in
native-speaker idiolects, even those of highly educated people. However, one
thing about シミュレーション/シュミレーション is that unlike 雰囲気, it is a phonetic loan rather
than a translated word. This means that as long as we English speakers keep
saying "simulation", Japanese language authorities can point to us and say
"See? シュミレーション is _objectively_ wrong."

(By contrast, for 雰囲気 the authorities can only point to the past, in which
case we can ask why they use です instead of なり and so on. Of course, the
counterargument to English-as-objective-truth is that once シミュレーション becomes a
Japanese word, it is perfectly "entitled" to change into シュミレーション just as
English "hari-kiri" evolved from 腹切り to suit the phonemic whims of English
speakers.)

As for why the change occurred, this also interests me. Nothing about シミュレ
seems as "hard to pronounce" as んい, but there are still phonemic pressures at
work:

  * みゅ is an uncommon sound in Japanese. It appears only in loanwords, and in most of those it is lengthened: ミュージック, アミューズメント, etc. The unlengthened ミュ is rare indeed (although not unheard of)
  * Thus, the combination みれ as far more common in Japanese than みゅれ
  * しゅ is also very common in Japanese -- and the fact that し can combine with a small ゅ at all should not be overlooked; it explains why we get シュミレーション but not *コュミニズム
  * The combination しゅみ is homophonous ( _pace_ tones) as the pronunciation for 趣味, a common word that all Japanese speakers are familiar with

Also, this is pure speculation, but some speakers may be unintentionally or
intentionally blending 趣味 and シミュレーション for _semantic_ reasons. The two do have
distinct meanings, but if you consider a formulation like "something that is
done in place of actual work/performance", you can see how an overlap is
conceivable.

[Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9F%B3%E4%BD%8D%E8%BB%A2%E6%8F%9B)
lists a couple more, including disputed ones (e.g. いちじく, the etymology of
which is not settled but which might involve metathesis).




I hate to turn these questions into the sawa and Matt show, but here are a
couple of interesting ones that are still "in progress":

  * 雰囲気 = ふんいき → ふいんき 

Dictionaries still list the pronunciation as "ふんいき", although some will give
"ふいんき" as an alternate version, but spoken Japanese is clearly moving towards
ふいんき. According to 日本国語大辞典, Yamaguchi Nakami reported on an [undated, but
pre-2007] survey finding that 70% of students in the Kansai area used "ふいんき"
instead of "ふんいき".

Nevertheless, it remains a shibboleth: people who know that it is originally
ふんいき feel entitled to laugh at those who don't. For example, someone on 2ch
once said "ふいんき（←なぜか変換できない）", or "ふいんき (← for some reason my IME software
won't recognize this)", not realizing that their IME software did not
recognize it because ふんいき is still the dictionary standard. Everyone found
this most amusing and it is a well-known quote now.

Another interesting thing about 雰囲気 is that you might have expected ふんにき to
appear as the alternate pronunciation instead, along the lines of しんのう for 親王
and so on. This may be because ふんいき is a relatively new word, coined during
the late Edo period (1800s) to translate the scientific concept of
"atmosphere" [hence the 囲, "surround"], only expanding to the metaphorical
meaning during the Meiji period. (This info too courtesy of 日本国語大辞典.) The
process that made しんのう out of 親王 might have already become non-productive by
then, in which case metathesis would be another good way of dealing with the
awkward んい combination.

  * simulation = シミュレーション → シュミレーション

I am not sure whether this is as widespread as ふいんき, but it is not uncommon in
native-speaker idiolects, even those of highly educated people. However, one
thing about シミュレーション/シュミレーション is that unlike 雰囲気, it is a phonetic loan rather
than a translated word. This means that as long as we English speakers keep
saying "simulation", Japanese language authorities can point to us and say
"See? シュミレーション is _objectively_ wrong."

(By contrast, for 雰囲気 the authorities can only point to the past, in which
case we can ask why they use です instead of なり and so on. Of course, the
counterargument to English-as-objective-truth is that once シミュレーション becomes a
Japanese word, it is perfectly "entitled" to change into シュミレーション just as
English "hari-kiri" evolved from 腹切り to suit the phonemic whims of English
speakers.)

As for why the change occurred, this also interests me. Nothing about シミュレ
seems as "hard to pronounce" as んい, but there are still phonemic pressures at
work:

  * みゅ is an uncommon sound in Japanese. It appears only in loanwords, and in most of those it is lengthened: ミュージック, アミューズメント, etc. The unlengthened ミュ is rare indeed (although not unheard of)
  * Thus, the combination みれ as far more common in Japanese than みゅれ
  * しゅ is also very common in Japanese -- and the fact that し can combine with a small ゅ at all should not be overlooked; it explains why we get シュミレーション but not *コュミニズム
  * The combination しゅみ is homophonous ( _pace_ tones) as the pronunciation for 趣味, a common word that all Japanese speakers are familiar with

Also, this is pure speculation, but some speakers may be unintentionally or
intentionally blending 趣味 and シミュレーション for _semantic_ reasons. The two do have
distinct meanings, but if you consider a formulation like "something that is
done in place of actual work/performance", you can see how an overlap is
conceivable.

[Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9F%B3%E4%BD%8D%E8%BB%A2%E6%8F%9B)
lists a couple more, including disputed ones (e.g. いちじく, the etymology of
which is not settled but which might involve metathesis).

