In
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
, or, 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, a morpheme will take based on the phonological or morphological context in which they appear.
In English
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
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:
*as or in verbs whose
stem 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. 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:
and
™z The specific pronunciation that a plural morpheme takes on is determined by the following morphological rules:
* Assume that the basic form of the plural morpheme, /z/, is
("bags" /bægz/)
* The morpheme /z/ becomes
™zby inserting an
™before
when a noun ends in a sibilant ("buses" /bʌsəz/)
* Change the morpheme /z/ to a voiceless
when a noun ends in a voiceless sound ("caps" /kæps/)
Negative allomorphs
In English, the negative prefix ''in'' has three allomorphs:
ªn ªÅ‹ and
ªm The phonetic form that the negative morpheme /ɪn/ uses is determined by the following morphological rules:
* the negative morpheme /ɪn/ becomes
ªnwhen preceding an alveolar consonant ("intolerant"/ɪn'tÉ”lÉ™rÉ™nt/)
* the morpheme /ɪn/ becomes
ªÅ‹before a velar consonant ("incongruous" /ɪŋ'kɔŋgruÉ™s/)
* the morpheme /ɪn/ becomes
ªmbefore a bilabial consonant ("improper" /ɪm'prÉ”pÉ™r/)
In Sami languages
The
Sami languages have a
trochaic
In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (al ...
pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. The vowels and consonants that are allowed in an unstressed syllable 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 Sami
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
has the causative verb suffix ''-hit''/''-ahttit'' in which ''-hit'' is selected when it would be the third syllable (and the preceding verb has two syllables), and ''-ahttit'' is selected when it would be the third and the fourth syllables (and the preceding verb has three syllables):
* ''goarru-t'' has two syllables and so when suffixed, the result is ''goaru-hi-t''.
* ''nanosm-it'' has three syllables and so when suffixed, the result is ''nanosm-ahtti-t''.
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 focusing ...
, as in
Classical Sanskrit:
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
Velars 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 (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...
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 there ...
*
Alternation (linguistics)
*
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
*
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 all ...
*
Grassmann's Law
*
Suppletion
References
{{Authority control
Linguistic morphology
Units of linguistic morphology
Linguistics terminology