metatypy

M3E1T1A1T1Y4P3Y4

noun

The morphosyntactic change that a language undergoes due to its speakers being bilingual.

Scrabble 18
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Meanings

nounmetatypy (uncountable)
  1. uncountablehuman sciencesThe morphosyntactic change that a language undergoes due to its speakers being bilingual.

    The Trans New Guinea language area is probably the result of repeated metatypy rather than of common genetic origin.

    1996, Malcolm Ross, “Contact-induced change and the comparative method”, in The comparative method reviewed: regularity and irregularity in language change, page 209

Origin

Coined by Australian and British linguist Malcolm Ross in 1996.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

metatypy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metatypy

MLA

“metatypy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metatypy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “metatypy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metatypy.

Source: metatypy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.