Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word.
The process of metathesis has altered the shape of many familiar words in the English language. Axe for ask goes back to Old English days, when ascian and axian were both in use. Some other frequently heard pronunciations in English that display metathesis are:
- nucular ( /Nukyul9r/ EPS) for nuclear ( /Nuklie9r/ )
- comfterble ( /K9mft9rb9l/ ) for comfortable ( /K9mf9rt9b9l/ )
- intregal ( /Intr9g9l/ ) for integral ( /Int9gr9l/ )
- revelant ( /Rev9l9nt/ ) for relevant ( /Rel9v9nt/ )
- intersting ( /Int9rsting/ ) for interesting ( /int9resting/ )
- julary ( /jool9rie/ ) for jewelry ( /joow9lrie/ )
External links:
Ohio State University Dept. of Linguistics Metathesis Page: http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ehume/metathesis/
Metathesis is used in chemistry as a synonym for double decomposition.