Peust, Carsten: Egyptian phonology: an introduction to the phonology of a dead language (Göttingen, 1999)

For clusters other than <>>-second, prosthetic vowels are rare. A few examples can be
found in Osing (1976a: note 949 on p. 77M.). Some words beginning with A, N, or "K show
an initial &.- in certain dialects or textual variants in Coptic which cannot be explained
etymologically, e.g. mini "to land" > sAO0N£, b(&).M)NI; on this cf. Osing (1976a: note
140 on p. 48of. and note 490 on p. 582).

4.10 Metatheses

It is a general observation in historical linguistics that consistent rules can be less easily
established for metatheses than for most other phonetic changes. Metatheses are assumed
in the development of numerous Egyptian words, but being irregular sound changes, they
frequently leave some doubt about the etymology. Some scholars have assumed numerous
metatheses during prehistoric periods of the language in order to increase the number of
Egyptian - Afroasiatic etymologies (such as Egyptian <sdm> "to hear" = Semitic Vsm'
"to hear"). I do not discuss metatheses of this type here.

To the best of my knowledge, only two proposals for generalizations about metatheses in
Egyptian have been advanced. Both of these generalizations do not apply consistently,
and both of them explain only a minority of all metatheses that can be found. Hintze
(1947a: 23f.) suggests that a metathesis sometimes occurs to bring consonants and vowels
of similar places of articulation closer together, e.g. stp "to choose" > sCC0nT (besides
more frequent C0)Tn) because both CO and II share a labial place of articulation. Accord-
ing to Loprieno (1994: I27f.), a metathesis can serve to produce a more optimal syllable
structure in terms of the sonority hierarchy (elements with high sonority move towards
the syllable nucleus).

I wish to add another rule which only explains a small proportion of all metatheses but
applies in a remarkably consistent manner. If two spirants form a cluster in morpheme-
final position, these spirants are rearranged in Sahidic so that the places of articulation
proceed from back to front. This is why, for instance, Egyptian sfh "7" developed into
sGMJJ^ /'sajf/ by metathesis instead of *(AtJUJ (for more details K5" § 4.9.2.4.).
A detailed examination of methatheses in Egyptian, which I am not going to present here,
would have to take into account the issue of relative chronology. For example, the
metathesis in fC€B"°.l /'sewhi/ as opposed to SC&.2,0'8' /'sahu/ (or /'sahw/) < shwr
('sahVwrV)aa9 "to curse" must have been so late that the Fayyumic change a\oyl > €
before h (03° §5.6.2.1) could still take place (Osing 1976a: note 41 on p. 363f.).
Similarly, in bujewil /'Jewni/ (not attested in Sahidic) < snw.t the metathesis must have
taken place after the syllabic n had been reanalyzed into £N in Bohairic (US' § 5.10.2),
because an earlier metathesis would have given rise to a form *UJ&'ifMI (Osing 1976a:
note 71 on p. 383-386).

229 'CaCVCCV is a common formation of causative verbs in Egyptian.

193