One way words evolve over time is through metathesis, which is the transposition of sounds or syllables in a word. After some time, if enough people pronounce the word in that way, the new pronunciation can eventually be adopted. Ever hear children say “pasketti” instead of “spaghetti?” That error is simply a result of metathesis.
Here are some more examples:
- comfortable → comfterble
- iron → iern
- relevant → revelant
- asterisk → asteriks
- enmity → emnity
- foliage → foilage
- cavalry → calvary
What other English (or non-English) pronunciation errors display metathesis?
