A Contrastive Study of Metathesis in English and Arabic

Abstract

AbstractMetathesis is one of the prominent phenomena in some languages like English, Standard and colloquial Arabic and in the Semitic ones. It is available in the literatures of those languages. The aim of the study is to provide a solid theoretical background of metathesis in English and Arabic, and to understand it clearly in both languages in terms of contrastive points of view. The procedure of the study is that it is a descriptive contrastive study of metathesis in English and Arabic dealing with its etymology, sources, grammatical categories, rules, types, reasons, different points of view on metathesis, etc. A contrastive picture of metathesis in both languages is then given. The study data are taken from British and American dialects, and Standard Arabic and its dialects (Iraqi, Jordanian, Syrian, Makkan, Sudanese, Morrocan and Cairene). The findings of the study emphasize that the two languages are similar to each other in terms of metathesis definition and the problem of treating it, but they are different in terms of etymology, sources, rules, types, reasons and whether the form is original or metathetic. This study tries to abridge the gap in the current literature of contrastive studies in English and Arabic. The study consists of four sections, and ends with a list of references and two appendixes.