Allomorph

From Glottopedia

When a particular morpheme is not represented everywhere by the same morph, but by different morphs in different environments, these alternative representations of the morpheme are called allomorphs.

[edit] Examples

The plural morpheme in English is regularly represented by the allomorphs [s], [z] and [ɨz]. The rule is as follows:

(i) if the noun stem ends in a voiceless consonant, the allomorph used is [s], as in kicks [kɪks];

(ii) if the noun stem ends in a voiced phoneme (including a vowel), the allomorphed used is [z] (as in cats [kæts]);

(iii) if the noun stem ends with a sibilant ([s], [z] etc.), the allomorph used is [ɨz] (as in sizes [saizɨz]).

[edit] Reference

Lyons, John. 1968. Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[edit] Other languages

German Allomorph (de) Chinese 语素变体