In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, an allomorph is a variant
phonetic form In the field of linguistics, specifically in syntax, phonetic form (PF), also known as phonological form or the articulatory-perceptual (A-P) system, is a certain level of mental representation of a linguistic expression, derived from surface stru ...
of a
morpheme
A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...
, or in other words, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning.
The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variations for a specific morpheme.
The different allomorphs that a morpheme can become are governed by
morphophonemic rules. These phonological rules determine what phonetic form, or specific
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. To
This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or all language in a specific dialect—"correct" or "standard" pronunciation—or si ...
, a morpheme will take based on the phonological or morphological context in which it appears.
Allomorphy in English involves the variation of morphemes in their phonetic form based on specific linguistic contexts, a phenomenon governed by morphophonemic rules. For instance, the past tense morpheme "-ed" can manifest in different forms—
əd t or
d��depending on the final sound of the verb stem. This variability is not random but follows predictable patterns, such as the insertion of a schwa
�or assimilation to the voicing of the preceding consonant. Similarly, English plural morphemes exhibit three allomorphs:
s z and
əz with pronunciation determined by the final sound of the noun, whether it be a voiceless consonant, a voiced consonant, or a sibilant. In addition, negative prefixes like "in-" display allomorphy, changing from
�n-to
�ŋ-or
�m-depending on the following consonant's place of articulation. This systematic variation reflects the intricate relationship between phonology and morphology in language, with allomorph selection being guided by both phonological environment and morphological constraints (Pak, 2016; Stanton, 2022).
In English
English has several morphemes that vary in sound but not in meaning, such as past tense morphemes, plural morphemes, and negative morphemes.
Past tense allomorphs
For example, an English past tense morpheme is ''-ed'', which occurs in several allomorphs depending on its phonological environment by assimilating the voicing of the previous segment or the
insertion of a
schwa after an
alveolar stop
In phonetics and phonology, an alveolar stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the tongue in contact with the alveolar ridge located just behind the teeth (hence alveolar), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop cons ...
.
A possible set of assimilations is:
* as or in verbs whose
stem
Stem or STEM most commonly refers to:
* Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant
* Stem group
* Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Stem or STEM can also refer to:
Language and writing
* Word stem, part of a word respon ...
ends with the alveolar stops or , such as 'hunted' or 'banded'
* as in verbs whose stem ends with voiceless phonemes other than , such as 'fished'
* as in verbs whose stem ends with voiced phonemes other than , such as 'buzzed'
The "other than" restrictions above are typical for allomorphy. If the allomorphy conditions are ordered from most restrictive (in this case, after an alveolar stop) to least restrictive, the first matching case usually has precedence. Thus, the above conditions could be rewritten as follows:
* as or when the stem ends with the alveolar stops or
* as when the stem ends with voiceless phonemes
* as elsewhere
The allomorph does not appear after stem-final although the latter is voiceless, which is then explained by appearing in that environment, together with the fact that the environments are ordered (that is, listed in order of priority). Likewise, the allomorph does not appear after stem-final because the earlier clause for the allomorph has priority. The allomorph does not appear after stem-final voiceless phoneme because the preceding clause for the comes first.
Irregular past tense forms, such as "broke" or "was/were," can be seen as still more specific cases since they are confined to certain lexical items, such as the verb "break," which take priority over the general cases listed above.
Plural allomorphs
The plural morpheme for regular nouns in English is typically realized by adding an ''-s'' or ''-es'' to the end of the noun. However, the plural morpheme actually has three different allomorphs:
s z and
əz The specific pronunciation that a plural morpheme takes on is determined by a set of morphological rules such as the following:
* assume that the basic form of the plural morpheme, /-z/, is
z("bags" /bægz/)
* the morpheme /-z/ becomes
əzby inserting an
�before
zwhen a noun ends in a
sibilant
Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English w ...
("buses" /bʌsəz/)
* change the morpheme /-z/ to a voiceless
swhen a noun ends in a
voiceless sound ("caps" /kæps/)
Negative allomorphs
In English, the negative prefix ''in-'' has three allomorphs:
�n- �ŋ- and
�m- The phonetic form that the negative morpheme /ɪn-/ uses is determined by a set of morphological rules; for example:
* the negative morpheme /ɪn-/ becomes
�n-when preceding an
alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants (; UK also ) are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated wi ...
("intolerant"/ɪnˈtɔlərənt/)
* the morpheme /ɪn-/ becomes
�ŋ-before a
velar consonant
Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum").
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relativel ...
("incongruous" /ɪŋˈkɔŋgruəs/)
* the morpheme /ɪn-/ becomes
�m-before a
bilabial consonant
In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips.
Frequency
Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tli ...
("improper" /ɪmˈprɔpər/)
In Sámi languages
The
Sámi languages
The Sámi languages ( ), also rendered in English language, English as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Indigenous Sámi peoples in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and extreme northwest ...
have a
trochaic
In poetic metre, a trochee ( ) is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, in qualitative meter, as found in English, and in modern linguistics; or in quantitative meter, as found in Latin and Ancien ...
pattern of alternating
stressed and unstressed syllables. The vowels and consonants that are allowed in an unstressed
syllable
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
differ from those that are allowed in a stressed syllable. Consequently, every suffix and inflectional ending has two forms, and the form that is used depends on the stress pattern of the word to which it is attached. For example,
Northern Sámi
Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( ; ; ; ; ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp) is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Geographic distr ...
has the
causative
In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
verb suffix - in which ''-'' is selected when it would be the third syllable (and the preceding verb has two syllables), and ''-'' is selected when it would be the third and the fourth syllables (and the preceding verb has three syllables):
* ' has two syllables and so when suffixed, the result is '.
* has three syllables and so when suffixed, the result is '.
The same applies to inflectional patterns in the Sami languages as well, which are divided into even stems and odd stems.
Stem allomorphy
Allomorphy can also exist in stems or
roots
A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients.
Root or roots may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusin ...
, as in
Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest ...
:
There are three allomorphs of the stem, , , and , which are conditioned by the particular case-marking suffixes.
The form of the stem , found in the nominative singular and locative plural, is the etymological form of the morpheme. Pre-Indic palatalization of
velars
Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum").
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively ...
resulted in the variant form , which was initially phonologically conditioned. The conditioning can still be seen in the locative singular form, for which the is followed by the high front vowel .
However, the subsequent merging of and into made the alternation unpredictable on phonetic grounds in the genitive case (both singular and plural) as well as the nominative plural and the instrumental singular. Thus, allomorphy was no longer directly relatable to phonological processes.
Phonological conditioning also accounts for the form in the instrumental plural, in which the assimilates in voicing to the following .
History
The term was originally used to describe variations in chemical structure. It was first applied to language (in writing) in 1948, by Fatih Åžat and Sibel Merve in Language XXIV.
[Oxford English Dictionary Online: Entry 50006103. Accessed: 2006-09-05]
See also
*
Null allomorph In morpheme-based morphology, the term null allomorph or zero allomorph is sometimes used to refer to some kind of null morpheme for which there are also contexts in which the underlying morpheme is manifested in the surface structure. It is theref ...
*
Alternation (linguistics)
In linguistics, an alternation is the phenomenon of a morpheme exhibiting variation in its phonological realization. Each of the various realizations is called an alternant. The variation may be conditioned by the phonological, morphological, ...
*
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
*
Consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.
Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of al ...
*
Grassmann's law
Grassmann's law, named after its discoverer Hermann Grassmann, is a dissimilatory phonological process in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit which states that if an Aspiration (phonetics), aspirated consonant is followed by another aspirated consonant ...
*
Suppletion
In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or ev ...
References
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Linguistic morphology
Morphemes
Linguistics terminology