5.22 Assimilation and metathesis
There is a tendency for nasal consonants which abut on consonants to be assimilated: bungdul or bundul ‘poke’; hingbis or himbis ‘scales’; amgid or anggid (also ambid) ‘like’. This alternation is sporadic, and competing forms are listed.
There is some competition between forms with voiced and forms with voiceless consonants, where the competition derives from assimilation: tikbas or tigbas ‘strike with a blade’; bukdu or bugdu ‘bulging out’. Again the competing forms are listed.
There is also competition between forms which differ by virtue of metathesis: bungdul or dungbul (and dumbul) ‘poke’; itsa or ista ‘throw’; bàgu /baʔgu/ or bag-u /bagʔu/ ‘new’. (Cf. Section 5.14.) Competing forms that differ by virtue of metathesis are listed except for forms containing a sequence /Cʔ/ which invariably compete with forms containing /ʔC/.
5.23 Change of vowels
The vowel of the antepenult sporadically may change to /a/: kumusta or kamusta ‘how are, is’; batíis or bitíis ‘leg’. Occasionally /a/ or /u/ is assimilated to a following /y/ or an /i/ in the following syllable: biyà or bayà ‘leave’; musimus or misimus ‘lowly’. In these cases competing forms are listed.
5.24 Change of /y/ to /dy/
In Bohol and Southern Leyte /y/ becomes /j/ (written dy). Some forms with dy have spread throughout the Cebuano speech area or occur only in the Bohol-Southern Leyte speech. Such forms are listed with dy.[21] Other forms with dy are listed as with y, and the reader may conclude that these forms have /dy/ in Bohol and Southern Leyte.
5.25 Competing forms where no sound change is involved
Roots which are not relatable by the above rules are given separate definitions. The exception to this rule is equivalent names of flora and fauna and technical terms which refer to exactly the same cultural forms: e.g. gwayabanu, labanu, malabanu, síku karabaw are all the same plant (Anona muricata); humagbus and hinablus both refer to the same relationship.