Allomorph

Definition

An allomorph is a morpheme that differs by in the way it is pronounced and written from the underlying morpheme, without changing its meaning (Zsiga, 2013, p. 246). In other words, it is one of the many possible forms of a morpheme. Typically, allomorphs are governed by morphophonemics. That is, the interaction between a language’s phonology an morphology. However, in cases of suppletive allomorphy, this is not the case.

There are several kinds of allomorphy, including (a discussion of each type of allmorphy can be found by clicking on the respective term below):

• Phonologically conditioned allomorphy
• Suppletive allomorphy

Examples

• Hul’q’umi’num’: Mellesmoen & Urbanczyk (2020) provide a discussion of the allomorphy of the imperfective aspect in Hul’q’umi’num’. In their discussion, it is stated that Hul’q’umi’num’ expresses allmorphy via reduplication, ablaut, metathesis, insertions, and deletions (p. 238). Some examples of Hul’q’umi’num’ imperfective allomorphs are provided below: