Metathesis of Stop-Sibilant Clusters in Modern Hebrew: A Perceptual Investigation

Abstract

In binyan hitpa'el, the reflexive and reciprocal verbal conjugation in Modern Hebrew, the /t/ of the /hit-/ prefix categorically metathesizes with a following sibilant (/s/, /z/, /∫/, or /t⁀s/), giving forms like [histakel] instead of expected forms like *[hitsakel]. It has been theorized that this metathesis may be perceptual, serving to place the /-t-/ in prevocalic position where it can be better perceived by listeners, the direction of metathesis being the more common sibilant + stop sequence in Modern Hebrew (Hume 2004), or that it may be auditory, based on a tendency for the sibilant noise to decouple from the rest of the speech stream, resulting in listener confusion about the place of the sibilant within the word (Blevins & Garrett 2004). Based on data from a speech perception experiment using English speakers, who listened to masked stimuli similar to hitpa'el verbs, I argue that Blevins & Garrett (2004)'s account is correct, with English speaking listeners evincing a tendency to misperceive stop + sibilant sequences as sibilant + stop sequences, despite the higher frequency of stop + sibilant sequences in English.