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THE ALLOMORPHY IN ENGLISH WORDS: MORPHOLOGY AND PHONOLOGY

INTERRELATED APPROACH

Article in LANGUAGE LITERACY Journal of Linguistics Literature and Language Teaching · June 2023
DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

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 Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching
Volume 7, Number 1, pp: 229-240, June 2023
e-ISSN: 2580-9962 | p-ISSN: 2580-8672
DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

THE ALLOMORPHY IN ENGLISH WORDS: MORPHOLOGY AND

PHONOLOGY INTERRELATED APPROACH

Karana Jaya Tarigan, Milisi Sembiring

Universitas Methodist Indonesia, Medan, Indonesia
E-mail: [email protected]

Received: 2023-05-22 Accepted: 2023-06-05 Published: 2023-06-30

Abstract
The article aims to analyze which allomorphs occur more accurately in
English and what factors determine them. The problems that the
researchers examine enable English learners and readers to pronounce
English words, in this case, English morphemes. The theory employed by
the researchers is morphophonemics, dealing with how morphemes alter
their appearance or pronunciation in response to the sounds that surround
them in a given piece of content. The approach or method that the
researchers use in this article is descriptive qualitative method based on
the data. The findings that the researchers come across are as follows: (a)
the definitive article, (b) the definitive article, (c) Derivation, (d) Irregular
verbs, (e) Past tense marker (-ed), (f) Present tense morpheme, (g) Plural
noun markers, (h) Possessive markers. It can be seen that the shape or
pronunciation of an English word depends on the linguistic environment in
which it occurs, and it is obvious that morphophonemic change involves
not only replacing but also changing the phonological shape of a
morpheme. Based on the data, the researchers find that there are two
basic types of allomorph, such as morphophonemic changes and
suppletion. The researchers also attend to the theory of Pike, stating that
sounds tend to be influenced by their environments.

Keywords: lexical; morphology; phonology; suppletion; morpheme; linguistic environment

and morphophonemics; allomorph

1. Introduction
Sometimes a morpheme has more than one shape (pronunciation), depending on
the environment in which it occurs. A morpheme's shape may be influenced by sounds in
the area, the type of stem it is linked to, or other conditioning factors. The systematically
distinct shapes of a morpheme are called its allomorphs. When a morpheme changes its
shape in response to the sounds that surround it in a particular context, the variation is
called morphophonology, and the patterns that describe the appearance of the allomorphs
are called morphophonemic rules. Morphophonemics can also be thought of as the
interface between phonology and morphology. Phonological rules specify the pronunciation
of sounds in a particular environment.
The purpose of the article is to improve the pronunciation of English words,
especially for English beginners, English teachers, or even English lecturers. The problems of
this article based on the data are to determine the shape of the morpheme in each
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environment, for example, the plural morpheme has three forms: /s/,/z/, and /iz/, and why
they are like this depends on their phonological environment.
Another way to look at variants is to say that English morphemic variants alternate
between /s/, /z/, and /Iz/, which are three different alternatives (Matthew, 1974: 85).
Change is usually studied in terms of the kind of conditioning it produces. For example, the
English plural variants mentioned above are phonologically determined. These follow the
same rules as the present variant of the possessive third-person singular -s and -es
(Bloomfield, 1933: 211). However, phonology is considered grammatical or morphological
because it has nothing to do with whether a past participle ending in "en-" or "ed" ends in
"worked" or "showed".

2. Literature Review
O'Grady, et al. (1980) state that the allomorphs of the English plural morpheme
provide a typical example of a phonologically conditioned allomorph, while Payne (2006:
63–65) states that the systematically distinct shapes of a morpheme are called its
allomorphs. The researchers focus on morphophonemic rules that specify the pronunciation
or the shape of a morpheme in context once a morphological rule has already been applied.
There was a particular title already written by another author that also used descriptive
qualitative elements by emphasizing word stress and segmental features called sentence
intonation. However, the researchers only focus on morphophonemic rules that cause
lexically conditioned allomorph, morphologically conditioned allomorph, phonologically
conditioned allomorph, and suppletion. The occurrence of allomorphs is influenced by the
environment itself. The environment in this case relates to the linguistic environment.

2.1 The Allomorph Etymology

The term allomorph is derived from the Greek ‘morphe’ which means form, or shape,
and ‘allos’ which means another, or different. Thus, allomorph means a different form
(shape), or technically, in linguistics, it is called morpheme alternants (Bussman, 1996). The
classification of morphs as allomorphs or tokens of a particular morpheme is based on (a)
similarity of meaning and (b) complementary distribution: for example, [s], [z], and [Iz / әz]
considered allomorphs of the plural morpheme. If the phonetic form of the allomorph is
determined by the phonetic environment, then it is a phonologically conditioned allomorph.

2.2 Allomorphs All About

If the word dog is added to the set of cats, rats, and bats, two further observations
can be made: The first is that the final s in dogs means "plural" just as the final s in each of
cats, rats, and bats means "plural". The second is that this s is realized as /z/ in dogs but as
/s/ in the other three words. If the word judges is added to the list, the "plural" meaning is
now realized by /әz/, not just by /z/ alone. Therefore, the "plural" morpheme appears in at
least three different phonemic shapes: /s/, /z/, and /әz/. These different phonemic shapes
of a morpheme are called the allomorphs of the morpheme. The various allomorphs of a
morpheme occur in complementary distribution with each other, and each appears in a
different environment. Allomorph can be studied in terms of three conditions, such as
phonologically conditioned allomorph, morphologically conditioned allomorph, and lexically
conditioned allomorph, as described below.
Phonologically Conditioning Allomorphs
(Present and past tense allomorphs)

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Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching
Volume 7, Number 1, pp: 229-240, June 2023
e-ISSN: 2580-9962 | p-ISSN: 2580-8672
DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

In cats, dogs, and judges, the /s/ allomorph of the "plural" morpheme occurs after a
/t/, the /z/ allomorph follows a /g/, and the /z/ allomorph follows a //. Allomorphs are
referred to as being phonologically conditioned when their distribution can be explained in
terms of their phonemic contexts. The simultaneous distribution of the English "possessive"
(cat's) and verb "third person" (taking) morphemes, as well as the English "plural" and its
allomorphs, can be economically explained. These allomorphs are homophonous and, in
general, phonologically conditioned. The usual allomorphs of the English "plural",
"possessive" and "third person" morphemes are /әz/, which occur after /s š č z ž ǰ/ (or after
sibilants), /s/, which occurs after the remaining voiceless consonants like /p t k f Ө/, and /z/,
which occurs elsewhere like /b,d,g,v,ð, i/. When the plural morpheme is added to church
/čәrč/, the result is /čәrčәz/, when the "possessive" morpheme is added to snake /Sneık/,
the result is /sneıks/, and when the "third person" morpheme is added to beg /bƐg/, the
result is /bƐgz/. It happens like this because the words end with voiceless and voiced
consonants. It can be stated that the distributions of the phonologically conditioned
allomorphs of the "plural", "possessive", and "third person" morphemes of English are as
follows:
“ plural” “possessive”, “third person”
/әz/ after sibilant consonants (coronal stridents)
/s/ after voiceless consonants
/z/ after voiced consonants

/Id/ or /d/, which occur after /t,d/, /t/, which occur after the remaining voiceless
consonants, and /d/, which occurs elsewhere, are the typical allomorphs of the English "past
tense" and "past partile" morphemes that occur within verbs, for example in baked. The
most prevalent and effective type of conditioning of morphemic variations in languages
seems to be phonological conditioning. As stated previously, sometimes a morpheme has
more than one shape, depending on the environment in which it occurs. A morpheme's
shape can be influenced by sounds in the area, the type of stem it is linked to, or other
conditioning factors. The systematically distinct shapes of a morpheme are called its
allomorphs. A morpheme can be a word, such as a hand, or a meaningful part of a word that
cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts, such as -ed for "looked". A morpheme is
therefore often defined as the smallest part of speech with a grammatical function. A
morpheme is also defined as a combination of sound and meaning. Morphs are physical
forms that represent morphemes in a language. The term morph is therefore sometimes
used to refer to the phonological realization of a morpheme. For example, the English past
tense morpheme that is spelled –ed has various morphs. It is realized as [t] after the
voiceless [p] of jump (of jumped ) as [d] after the voiced [l] of repel (of repelled), and as
[Id] after the voiceless [t] of root or the voiced [d] of wed (of rooted and wedded). These
morphs are called allomorphs or morpheme variants. In this case, the appearance of one
morph over another is determined by the voicing and place of articulation of the final
consonant of the verb stem. The stem is that part of a word that is in existence before any
inflectional affixes. For example:
1) Noun Stem Plural Suffix
Cat -s
Worker -s

In the form of the word Cats, the plural inflectional suffix -s is attached to the simple

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root cat, which is the bare root, i.e., the irreducible core of the word. In workers, the similar
substitution suffix -s comes after a slightly more complex stem consisting of the root work
plus the suffix –er, which is used to form a genitive, genitive verb word (with the meaning
"the one who performs the action indicated by the verb', e.g., singer, fighter, dancer, etc.).
Her work is the root, but the worker is the stem to which –s is attached.
A base is any unit whatsoever to which affixes of any kind can be added. The affixes
attached to a base may be inflectional affixes selected for syntactic reasons or derivational
affixes which alter the meaning or grammatical category of the base. In other words, all
roots are bases.Bases are called stems only in the context of inflectional morphology.

Morphological Conditioning of Allomorphs

In pairs such as man-men, child-children, and deer-deer, in which the second item
can be said to contain the "plural" morpheme, the variation, if any, between the two forms
in terms of phonemic environments cannot be stated. Instead, this must be referred to the
morphemes "man", "child" and "deer", or to their phonemic shapes (/mæn/, /čaıld/, and
/dir/ ), and specify the allomorph of the "plural" morpheme separately for each. This kind of
variation among allomorphs is called morphological conditioning. The morphologically
conditioned allomorphs of a morpheme are regarded as irregular in contrast with the
phonologically conditioned allomorphs, which are regarded as regular. Men, children, and
deer are therefore irregular English plurals, just as are alumni, criteria, mice, women, oxen,
and strata. The "Past Tense" morpheme also has irregular allomorphs, as in drank, brought,
swam, was, had, put, took, fled, built, and so on, likewise, the "Past Participle" morpheme
has irregular allomorphs, as in drunk, brought, swum, been, broken, stood, put, and so on.
In stating the distributions of the allomorphs of morphemes such as "plural", "past"
and so on, it is usually stated that the morphologically conditioned allomorphs come first
and then the phonological conditioning environments in optimal order. The result is that
"exceptions" to general rules are stated first, the narrowest phonologically conditioning
environments next, and finally the most regular, or general, allomorph. The last variant may
sometimes even be regarded as the phonemic "norm" of the allomorph—the most general
case.

Morphophonemics (morphophonology)
Morphophonemics or morphophonology refers to the changes in the shape of
morphemes in different environments. A familiar example of this is the indefinite article in
English:
2) A dog An apple
A man An orchid
A bus An elephant
A ticket An umbrella
An honest man
Since the article is always present before vowels and before consonants, it is simple
to determine which form would be used in any given circumstance. In other words, the
phonological shape of the word that comes after it completely determines the article's
form. The word phonetic or phonology here is important since the distribution of morph
may be determined by vowels or consonants before an indefinite article. Other changes
occur in purely phonological environments, as in the regular plural suffix in English, which
has the form [iz] after sibilant sounds such as (s, z, š, ž, ĵ ), the form [s] after voiceless

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Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching
Volume 7, Number 1, pp: 229-240, June 2023
e-ISSN: 2580-9962 | p-ISSN: 2580-8672
DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

consonants (other than s, š, č ), and the form [z] in all other environments. These
variants are called phonological variants or phonological alternants because the choice
among them is determined by phonological rules.
Other allomorphs are found in the definite article as given below.
3) [ðә] Question [ði] Answer
[ðә] Book [ði] Author
[ðә] Fence [ði] Idea

In isolation (it is pronounced) [ði] from the data above, the definite article has two
morphs, [ðә] and [ði]. Each article has a third, stressed variant when pronounced alone (or
occasionally when speakers pause, as in I saw a..... a..... the unicorn). These are [eI] and [i],
respectively. Allomorphs are those distinct morphs that realize the same morpheme, and
allomorphy is the phenomenon where different morphs realize the same morpheme.
Allomorphy is also frequently found in English derivation, and both bases and affixes can be
affected by it.
4) Explain Maintain Courage
Explanation Maintenance Courageous
Explanatory

To make things more transparent, try to look at the actual pronunciations given in
phonetic transcription in (5) below. Primary stress is indicated by a superscript prime
preceding the stressed syllable, and secondary stress by a subscript prime preceding the
stressed syllable.
5) [Ik’spleIn] [meIn’teIn, mәn’teIn] [k𝖠rIdƷ] [ƐksplәneIʃn)
[meIntәnәns] [kә’reIdƷәs]
[Ik’splænәtɔrI)

From the data, it is described that the allomorphy of the bases in (4) and (5) The
pronunciation of the base EXPLAIN varies according to the kind of suffix attached to it. It
started with attachment –ation , which causes three different effects. First, stress is shifted
from the second syllable of the base plain to the first syllable of the suffix. Second, the first
syllable of the base is pronounced [Ɛk] instead of [Ik], and, third, the first syllable of the
base receives secondary stress. The attachment of –atory to explain leads to a different
pronunciation of the second syllable of the base ( [æ] instead of [eI]). Similar observations
can be made concerning maintain and courage, which undergo vowel changes under the
attachment of –ance and –ous, respectively. In all cases involving affixes, there is more than
one base allomorph, and the appropriate allomorph is dependent on the kind of suffix
attached to it. It can be stated that the allomorphy in these cases is morphologically
conditioned because it is the following morpheme that is responsible for the realization of
the base. Furthermore, it is seen that there are not only obligatorily bound morphemes, i.e.,
affixes, but also obligatorily bound morphs, i.e specific realizations of a morpheme that only
occur in contexts where the morpheme is combined with another morpheme. Explain thus
has a free allomorph, the morph [Ik’spleIn], and several bound allomorphs, [Ɛksplәn] and
[Ik’splæn].
It is reiterated that allomorphs are different variants of the same morpheme. The
alternation is referred to as being phonologically conditioned if the decision of which
allomorph occurs in which context can be predicted based on phonological patterns, as in

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(1-3). The alternation is referred to as being morphologically conditioned if the allomorph

chosen is essentially random and must be taught word by word, as in examples 4–5. The
examples in paragraph (6) below demonstrate lexically conditioned language.
Base Form Past Participle
Give Given
Take Taken
Hide Hidden
Bite Bitten
Know Known
Live Lived
Bake Baked
Guide Guided
Sight Sighted
Owe Owed

Two main types of phonologically conditioned allomorphs are possible. When a

phonological process leads to a change in form, the process is referred to as
morphophonemic or morphophonology. The term "suppletion" refers to a process in which
one allomorph merely replaces another, which is a change in the form that cannot be
categorized as a phonological process.

Lexically Conditioning Allomorphs

In other cases, the choice of the allomorph may be lexically conditioned; that is, the
use of a particular allomorph may be obligatory if a certain word is present. This can be seen
in the realization of the plural in English. The plural of ox is not oxes but oxen, although
words that rhyme with ox take the expected /ız/ plural allomorph (cf /faksiz/ ‘foxes’ and
/baksız/ ‘boxes’). The choice of the allomorph –en is a lexically conditioned allomorph. It is
dependent on the presenceof the specific noun ox.
Finally, there are a few morphemes in English whose allomorphs show no phonetic
similarity. A classical example of this is provided by the forms good/better which both
contain the lexeme good even though they do not have even a single sound in common.
Where allomorphs of a morpheme are phonetically unrelated, this refers to ‘suppletion’
(Katamba, 1993).
Think about the degree-related inflection paradigm. Adjectives are used in English,
as shown in (7). The erroneous comparative and superlative forms for good and bad appear
to have absolutely nothing in common with the fundamental (positive) form. Better and
best do not contain any trace of the root form good, unlike such irregular plural forms as
ox/oxen, child/children, criterion/criteria, alumnus/alumni, datum/data, etc., in which the
original root can still be seen in the plural form.
7) Positive Comparative Superlative
Big Bigger Biggest
Fast Faster Fastest
Funny Funnier Funniest
Great Greater Greatest
Good Better (gooder) Best
Bad Worse (badder) Worst

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DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

An alternation like good/better/best, in which the inflectional paradigm for a certain

word involves more than one root form, has traditionally been referred to as suppletion.
Other examples in English include the irregular verb forms go-went and am-is-are-was-were.
These additional forms of the root word cannot be derived or predicted by any normal
phonological rules but must be listed in the word's lexical entry.
Total suppletion occurs primarily as a marker of inflectional categories and rarely in
the derivational process. It would be quite challenging to distinguish suppletive stems as
belonging to the same morpheme because derivational morphology frequently exhibits
semantic irregularity and does not establish paradigms. On semantic grounds, it could be
tempting to claim, for instance, that killing is the causal form of death or that dropping is
the causative form of falling. However, there is no proof that these form pairs are connected
morphologically.

3. Research Method
The method used in this article is the descriptive qualitative method due to the the
fact that the findings in the article are concerned with morphophonemic rules because,
from morphophonemic rules, we can classify that there are 4 types of allomorphs, such as
lexically conditioned allomorphs, morphologically conditioned allomorphs, phonologically
conditioned allomorphs, and suppletions (Hadari & Mini, 1996: 73). The researchers focus
on the four aspects because, from a few points of view, phonology and morphology are
interrelated with one another depending on the context in the linguistic environment. From
the 4 aspects of allomorph, the researchers find that there are 8 types of occurrences of
English allomorph, as described below:
a. In the definite article (A and An)
b. The definite article (the [ðә] is pronounced after consonants, and [ðı] is pronounced
after vowels or sounds like vowels.
c. Derivation ( bases and affixes)
d. Irregular verbs
e. Past tense marker (-ed)
f. Present tense
g. Plural noun markers
h. Possessive/genitive marker

3.1 Data Analysis

The background of allomorph is the relationship between phonology and
morphology. The analysis of the data in this research is concerned with morphophonemic
rules because, from morphophonemic rules, we can see the interrelationship between
morphology and phonology in a linguistic environment. The researchers find present tense
allomorph, past tense allomorph, possessive allomorph, etc. These phonological aspects are
the background of this study; the relationship between phonology and morphology.

3.2 The Occurrences of Allomorph in English

The occurrences of allomorph can be found in present tense allomorph, past tense
allomorph, definite and indefinite, possessive allomorph, suppletion, etc. These are the
focus of this research. As previously stated, suppletion is the process of swapping out one
allomorph for another. Morphophonemic modification entails altering a morpheme's
phonological shape rather than replacing it. A change in one or more phonemes is what is

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known as a morphophonemic process.

Triggered by the phonological properties of a neighboring morpheme, a very
familiar exampleoccurs in the suffix that marks regular plurals in English.

Plural noun markers

8) Plural nouns
Cat -s Dog -z Kiss -iz
Book - s Bed -z Wish -iz
Map - s Star -z Rose -iz
Tusk - s Hall -z Judge -iz
Cow -z Church -iz
Boy -z

In linguistic environment as seen in (8), there are various alternative ways to denote
English plural nouns. The choice between the plural suffix's alternative forms is
phonologically predetermined or constrained. The voiced fricative /-z/ occurs elsewhere or
after voiced consonants, while the voiceless fricative /-s/ occurs after other voiceless
consonants. It simply depends on the last phoneme of the stem.
Essentially the same changes are observed in the third person singular agreement
suffix as in (9a) and the possessive elitic in (9b)
9) a. Present 3rd singular verbs
Eat -s Hug -z Kiss -iz
Look -s Bid -z Wish -iz
Nap -s Stir -z Rise -iz
Risk -s Call -z Judge -iz
Think -s Bow -z Teach -iz
Enjoy -z
Swim -z

b. Possessive Nouns (N-S’) :

Pat -s Meg -z Joyce -iz
Mark -s Ted -z Trish -iz
Skip -s Bob -z Roz -iz
Ernest -s Bill -z George -iz
Ruth -s Sam -z Butch -iz
Mary -z
Lou -z

In cases like this, where two (or more) variant forms of a single morpheme are
similar in phonological shape and the difference between them follows a regular
phonological pattern observed elsewhere in the language, the relationship between the two
forms is accounted for by a special type of phonological rule, called a Morphophonemic
Rule.
For instance, to explain the various forms of the plural morpheme in (8), it is
believed that the basic form, /-z/, is the underlying form, and morphophonemic rules are
developed to derive the other forms. But the essence of these rules needs to account for
the following:

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DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

10) a. Plural /-z/-s/-iz/

following sibilants
b. Plural /-z/-s/-iz/
following other voiceless consonants

It has been identified that the alternations in the regular English plural marker,
illustrated in (10), are a morphophonemic process. The second-person possessive suffix,
however, is more complicated. Here, there are three distinct allomorphs in the three
attested environments.

4. Results and Discussion

Is every morpheme pronounced the same in all contexts? If it were, most phonology
texts could be considerably shorter than they are. Many morphemes have two or more
different pronunciations, called allomorphs, the choice between them is determined by the
context. (McCharty, 2002: 22–23). Allomorphy refers to the choice of allomorphs because it
depends so much on phonology, and is not a morphological matter at all (McCharty, 2002:
22–23). Plag states (2002: 27) that different morphs representing the same morpheme are
called allomorphs, and when different morphs realize the same morpheme, The
phenomenon is known as allomorphy.
In the English data, only the first three allomorphs such as plural allomorph,
possessive, and 3rd singular verb, are all predictable, but the words such as sheep can't be
predicted (unpredictable) depending on phonological context. The English past tense suffix -
d, the English past tense suffix has three forms: [d], [t], and [ıd / әd]. The distribution of the
three allomorphs is predictable and parallel to the distribution of the three allomorphs of
the English plural suffix (Aronoff & Fudeman, 2010: 74-78).
In the plural morpheme and past tense morpheme, there are complementary
distributions because these refer to the fact that different allophones (allomorphs) of the
same phoneme (morpheme) do not occur in the same linguistic environment. That is, each
occurs in unique positions in words. More technically, they show mutually exclusive
distributional characteristics (Wolfram & Johnson, 1982).
Besides phonological allomorphs, languages may also exhibit allomorphs that are not
at all similar in pronunciation. These are called suppletive allomorphs here. An example is
the suffix of the English past participle, which is –ed with some verbs (most verbs such as
pave/pave, cry/cried, call/called, stop/stopped, pat/patted, but –en with others such as
give/given, take/taken, shake/shaken, hide/hidden, break/broken). The –ed itself exhibits
three different phonological allomorphs, [d], [t], and [ıd / әd], similar to the plural when
describing the allomorphy patterns of a language. Another important dimension is the
conditioning of the allomorphy, that is, the conditions under which different allomorphs are
selected. Perhaps the most important factor is phonological conditioning. Very often, the
phonological context (environment) determines the choice of allomorphs. For instance, the
English plural allomorphs [- z], [-s], and [ız] are strictly phonologically conditioned. [-әz]
appears after sibilants (s, z, ʃ, Ʒ) [-s] appears after a voiceless non-sibilant obstruent, like
cats, books, lips, or cliffs, and [-z] appears elsewhere, like bags, bells, keys, etc (Haspelmath,
2002: 29). suffix-s, but this will be ignored in this case. The items –ed and –en are not similar
phonologically, so they are regarded as suppletive.
It is not always easy to decide whether an alternation is phonological or suppletive.
For instance, what about English buy/bought, catch/caught, and teach/taught? The root

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allomorphs of these verbs [baı / bɔ;t], [kætʃ / kɔ;t], [ti:tʃ / tɔ:t] are not radically different. As
go/went, but they are not similar enough to be described by phonological rules either. In
such cases, linguists often speak of weak suppletion, as opposed to strong suppletion in
cases like go/went, good/better (Haspelmath, 2002)
Based on the data, the findings of the research show that allomorphs can occur in:
a. In the definite article (A and An)
b. The definite article (the [ðә] is pronounced after consonants, and[ðı] is pronounced
after vowels or sounds like vowels.
c. Derivation ( bases and affixes)
d. Irregular verbs
e. Past tense marker (-ed)
f. Present tense
g. Plural noun markers
h. Possessive/genitive marker

Based on the findings of this article, the allomorph that occurs in the Indefinite
article is due to nearby sounds that are consonants and vowels preceded by, and in the
definite article (the) is also due to nearby sounds, while the allomorph on derivation occurs
due to the kind of suffix attached to the words. The allomorphs occur in irregular verbs, past
tense markers, and present tense. In the plural morpheme and past morpheme, there are
simulations and because of the assimilation the sounds defer one another like [pƐt-s], [bƐl-
z], [rәuz-ız] and also stabbed [stæbd] passed [pæst] and needed [ni:dId].
From the two examples, the alternation is not arbitrary; rather, it is phonologically
conditioned. This means that the allomorph of a morpheme that occurs in a given context is
partly or wholly determined by the sounds of adjacent morphemes. The suffix agrees in
voicing with the preceding sound, and the plural suffix is realized by a voiced or voiceless
alveolar fricative depending on whether the nouns lead in a voiced or voiceless segment.

4.1 Suppletion
According to Bauer (2003: 48–49) word forming of what seems to be the same
lexeme are so varied. We refer to this as "suppletion" when two things are so derived from
one another that they cannot be explained by any universal rules. Katamba (1993: 31) states
again that where allomorphs of a morpheme are phonetically unrelated, we speak of
'Suppletion'.
The distinction between phonological and suppletive alternations is not always clear-
cut. What about the English words for "buy," "catch," and "teach"? These verbs' root
allomorphs [ba/b;t], [kaet/k;t], and [ti:t/t:t] aren't as drastically different from one another
as go/went, but they're also not comparable enough to be covered by phonological rules
either. In such cases, linguists often speak of weak suppletion as opposed to strong
suppletion in cases such as gut went, good/better, and so forth.

5. Conclusion
Based on the data observed, the researchers draws a conclusion that there are two
basic types of allomorphy: first, morphophonemic change, in which the shape of a
morpheme is altered by some phonological process; and second, suppletion, in which there
is no regular phonological relationship between the two allomorphs. Suppletion may occur
in roots or affixes and is generally used to mark inflectional categories (tense, person,

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Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching
Volume 7, Number 1, pp: 229-240, June 2023
e-ISSN: 2580-9962 | p-ISSN: 2580-8672
DOI: 10.30743/ll.v7i1.7075

number, etc.) rather than derivational processes.

Based on the problems in this article, the researchers also draw another conclusion
that the shapes of the morphemes in English are mostly affected by nearby sounds, but on
the other hand, sometimes the shapes of the sounds depend on the stems attached to the
words, and other conditioning factors. Allomorphy in English is predictable in most cases,
especially plural allomorphs, past tense allomorphs, possessive allomorphs, and the 3 rd
singular version.
These different types of allomorphy are summarized in (11) , which is adapted from
Bickford (1993: 163). This tree shows a logical way of classifying the various patterns of
allomorphy that have been discussed and observed in this article.
11)
TYPES OF ALLOMORPHY

SUPPLETION MORPHOPHONEMIC

AFFIX ROOT

LEXICALLY CONDITIONED

MORPHOLOGICALLY
CONDITIONED

PHONOLOGICALLY
CONDITIONED

It is necessary to decide whether the choice of allomorph is better characterized as a

morphophonemic process or as a case of phonologically conditioned suppletion if the choice
of allomorph is foreseeable on phonological grounds. There are two fundamental choices if
the allomorph chosen is not phonologically predictable. The lexical entry for the root will list
the suffix forms of that root.

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