Weak Suppletion

Definition

Weak suppletion is a morphological process that occurs when allomorphs are not completely different in form (as is the case with strong or “excessive” suppletion), but there are no regular or predictable phonological rules to relate the two forms.

Examples

• Hul’q’umi’num’:
  • The following example provided by Mellesmoen and Urbanczyk (2020, p. 246) is an example illustrating weak suppletion. According to the predictable rules in Hul’q’umi’num’, the allomorphs for ‘run’ ~ ‘running’ arise in unexpected forms.
  • It can be seen that the forms x^wčenəm ~ x^wančənˈəmˈ do resemble each other in some ways, however, there are also differences in their surface forms that are not predicted.