5.22 Assimilation and metathesis

There is a tendency for nasal consonants which abut on consonants to be assimilated: bungdul or bundul ‘poke’; hingbis or himbis ‘scales’; amgid or anggid (also ambid) ‘like’. This alternation is sporadic, and competing forms are listed.

There is some competition between forms with voiced and forms with voiceless consonants, where the competition derives from assimilation: tikbas or tigbas ‘strike with a blade’; bukdu or bugdu ‘bulging out’. Again the competing forms are listed.

There is also competition between forms which differ by virtue of metathesis: bungdul or dungbul (and dumbul) ‘poke’; itsa or ista ‘throw’; bàgu /baʔgu/ or bag-u /bagʔu/ ‘new’. (Cf. Section 5.14.) Competing forms that differ by virtue of metathesis are listed except for forms containing a sequence /Cʔ/ which invariably compete with forms containing /ʔC/.