13: Calling speech errors by their rightful name

Pase in coint, spoonerisms. Named after the late William Archibald Spooner, you may remember this speech error from Disney's incarnation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and the lovable dwarf, Doc. At least, this is where I first remember hearing this speech error and recall understanding the pattern quite naturally.

This has to be, by far, my favorite type of speech error (having a favorite speech error is certain to qualify as a good nerdicator, as well). This error is marked most commonly by a sort of metathesis or change in the first consonant (or onsent) of two separate, but adjacent words. Take a quote attributed to Spooner and its intended utterance:

"The Lord is a shoving leopard." vs. "The Lord is a loving shepherd." 

                        sh          l                                            l          sh

You can see that "sh" is replaced by "l" and vice versa. Part of why I love this speech error is that it acts as an example that substantiates the existence of syllable structure. Having trouble getting to sleep? I encourage you to read an academic paper on spoonerisms and syllable structure. There is enough written on these topics to give you good sleeping material for over a year.