10

President Trump pronounced the word origins [ˈɔ:rɪʤɪnz] as oringes [ˈɔ:rɪnʤəz] in a meeting with NATO secretary general Stoltenberg at the White House on 3 April 2019.

See this clip on Youtube.

Question

What are the technical term and that term’s definition of the phonological process at play here, and how exactly does that term apply to the change in pronunciation from [ˈɔ:rɪʤɪn] to [ˈɔ:rɪnʤ]?

Community
  • 1
Richard Z
  • 2,021
  • 2
    Possible duplicate of What causes the pronunciation “nucular”? The accepted answer was metathesis. President Trump seems to be aware of his slip because at one point he says the word "origin" a little more carefully and correctly. – Weather Vane Apr 06 '19 at 12:13
  • It may be similar, but it's not directly comparable. The two sounds are not just switched around, but one vowel is actually deleted. Isn't that important? – Richard Z Apr 06 '19 at 12:16
  • 3
    I listened to the Trump recording a couple of times, and it sounded to me like he was not simply mispronouncing "origin" but was clearly saying "orange". This would lead the casual observer to believe the he does not know what "origin" means in the sense it was being used. (Or perhaps for some reason he got into the practice of using "orange" facetiously and forgot he was speaking for the record.) – Hot Licks Apr 06 '19 at 12:18
  • Clearly he uses the word to mean "beginning" because he uses that synonym right afterwards. So he knows what the word means and just mispronounces it. The sense of 'orange, fruit' makes no sense in the context. – Richard Z Apr 06 '19 at 12:21
  • He actually mispronounces "origins" not "origin", so it has the same number of syllables. The clip is subtitled with "oranges". The clip is followed by another clip which discusses the president's way of speaking. – Weather Vane Apr 06 '19 at 12:21
  • How do you know he mispronounces "origins" rather than "origin"? Either word has 3 syllables. – Richard Z Apr 06 '19 at 12:22
  • Because he says "origin" carefully and correctly at 00:19, but never pronounces "origins" correctly. – Weather Vane Apr 06 '19 at 12:23
  • Yes, so that suggests to me that he wants to say "origin" (since he actually says it!) rather than "originS". But I don't think it matters much with respect to my question. I can update the question if you think it helps? – Richard Z Apr 06 '19 at 12:25
  • Yes please, as the title is incorrect. Your "number of vowels (syllables?)" remark applies to "origin" and "orange". But he does not mispronounce "origin". – Weather Vane Apr 06 '19 at 12:28
  • 1
    Metathesis is correct: the n and g are flipped — a source of often amusing slips of the tongue. – KarlG Apr 06 '19 at 12:29
  • That's not enough for me. If you just flip the "n" and the "g" in "origins" you end up with "orinigs", not "oringes". – Richard Z Apr 06 '19 at 12:35
  • 7
    Three syllables....dementia – Mari-Lou A Apr 06 '19 at 12:36
  • Is that a joke? Or is it actually the case that people with dementia find it difficult to pronounce three-syllable words? – Richard Z Apr 06 '19 at 12:38
  • 4
    @RichardZ While the frequent phonetic flipflops of Mrs Malaprop can be as easily ascribed to a third-class mind unconsciously covering for a poor education under class-related pretensions as they can to manifestly apparent senescent cognitive deterioration, far be it from ELU to attempt similar analyses on living examples of these traits. – tchrist Apr 06 '19 at 14:57
  • 2
    @tchrist - ;) ;) Orange you glad I didn't say banana?? – Hot Licks Apr 06 '19 at 16:57
  • 1
    Seriously, another reason for this slip-up might be that the prez has some sort of brain issue which makes word recall problematic. He has been known to make similar slip-ups in other cases, both spoken and written. – Hot Licks Apr 06 '19 at 17:00
  • 3
    This clearly isn’t metathesis since it’s not two sounds switching positions, but one sound moving further up in a word. I’ve never come across a term for that. English has a sporadic tradition of nasal insertion before a /dʒ/ in the onset of the final syllable in trisyllabic words, especially of French oran—sorry, origins (message ~ messenger, passage ~ passenger). There isn’t usually an n at the end to delete/move, but this still feels like it must be closely related to that process. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 06 '19 at 19:45
  • @Janus it goes from /ˈɒrɪdʒɪnz/ to /ˈɒrɪn(d)ʒz/ - the /dʒ/ swaps with the /n/, or am I mistaken? – marcellothearcane Sep 02 '19 at 09:58
  • If you simply swap /ʤ/ and /n/, you’d end up incorrectly with /ˈɔ:rɪnɪʤz/. – Richard Z Sep 02 '19 at 12:48

1 Answers1

1

I believe this is a good example of non-adjacent metathesis (hyperthesis)

Metathesis involving non-contiguous sounds, also known as long-distance metathesis or hyperthesisWikipedia

hyperthesis: linguistics, phonology n. A form of metathesis in which non-contiguous sounds are switched. (borrowed from Ancient Greek hupérthesis .) Wiktionary

This is the right answer because, as others have pointed out, standard metathesis would involve switching the 'n' and 'g' in origins, which would form "orinigs". Hyperthesis covers this exact problem.

Often, hyperthesis is present when sound changes between languages occur. See this example list from the linked Wikipedia article:

Latin parabola > Spanish palabra 'word'
Latin miraculum > Spanish milagro 'miracle'
Latin periculum > Spanish peligro 'danger, peril'
Latin crocodilus > Spanish cocodrilo 'crocodile'

Community
  • 1
Lordology
  • 2,277
  • Spanish didn't have to borrow those from Latin. They were always there to start with. Unlike English, Spanish is a direct lineal descendant of Latin. They just got worn down from overuse across the millennia. .:) – tchrist Nov 11 '19 at 01:57