The sounds change placesSourced
Not region-specific · English meaning
Bird developed from Old English bridd
English bird developed from Old English bridd through a change involving the order of sounds. Such rearrangement is called metathesis. Word history can involve moving sounds as well as adding or losing them. A familiar short word preserves the result of a different earlier arrangement.
The sequence changed, not just the number of parts.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Metathesis (linguistics) · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-05