A Rule-Account of Metathesis in Gascon

This paper presents a systematic diachronic study of metathesis in Gascon, in dialect of Occitan. A method of weighing syllables is proposed to arrive at a rule-account of metathesis and the analysis is based on the claim that the difference in weight between two contiguous syllables can explain the metathesis process. The syllable weight approach is shown to apply to all instances and absences of metathesis in Gascon and is able to predict its occurrence under a single rule accounting for all possibly relevant environments.