Morphophonemic Proccess

Morphophonemic Process

Language is the most important aspect in the life of all

beings. We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and
abstract thought, and also to learn how to communicate with others. When we communicate
with native speaker, we need a good language and pronunciation. So that In English we know
about linguistic and its process of learning. Linguistic of morphology is the study of word
structure. It seeks to characterize the system of categories and rules involved in word formation
and interpretation. When we talk about morphology , it related with Morphophonology.
Morphophonology is a branch of linguistics which studies about the phonological structure
of morphemes, the alternative series which serve a morphological function and the
combinatory phonic modifications of morphemes which happen when they are combined.
Morphophonemic is a branch of morphology, deals with the variation in the forms of
morphemes because of phonetic factor. Each word has different process of Morphophonemic.
Morphophonemic Process is a process which happens to combine word ( morpheme), it will
make changing the sound ( pronunciation) and doesn’t change the meaning. Sometimes, it
changes the phoneme of morphemes. For example: the word of “wanted”. The base of
“wanted” is “want”, or we also call it as free morpheme. Then “ed” in wanted is morp or bound
morpheme. Word of wanted has different pronunciation for the past tense marker “ed”.
Allomorph is a part of morphophonemic process. Allomorph is the change of pronunciation
and the spelling when it’s combined with another morpheme. For Example : bags, washes,
sticks. The “s” in bags, will be pronounce as “z”. The “s” in washes, will be pronounce as “iz”,
then the “s” in sticks, will be pronounce as “s”. “z”, “iz”, “s” is the allomorph of “s”.
In Morphophonemic process, there are morphemes which are represented in all
occurrences by a single phonemic shape: for example, pay, represented by /pei/ in pays, paid,
paying, payer, payee, payment, and so on, as well as in the whole word "pay". If all the
morphemes of English were like this, then the morphophonemics of the language would be
trivial. But there are complications in the English language. Thus, in English, the past tense
morpheme is represented by a suffix paid.. Suffixes is a word that is added at the end of another
word or base to make a new word. For example : Plurals "-es" and "-s", as in "bus, buses",
"bun, buns" . Besides ,there are the example for morpheme that had change, such as in Plural
form of "-f" is "-ves", as in "leaf, leaves", “wolf, wolves”. Then different pronunciations for
the past tense marker is "-ed". In Morphology, there is known as inflectional Morpheme which
related with morphophonemic process. It also told us about the morpheme which add a
phoneme but doesn’t change the meaning. For example : stamp become stamps and grape
become grapes.
There are different kinds of morphophonemic change in English; here are some of the
common changes in morphophonemic in English :
1. Loss of phoneme
For example in the lost of phoneme /t/ when changing wordclass (adjective to a
noun)
e.g. different → difference; democrat → democracy
2. Addition of phonemes
For example in the addition of “s” in the change of :
sword → swordsman; sale → salesgirl; craft → craftsman
3. Simple change of phonemes
The example which is mentioned above, the change from singular to plural
e.g. dog → dogs
4. Assimilation – Dissimilation
Assimilation is the process of replacing a sound by another sound
under the influence of a third sound which is near to it in the word or sentence.
5. Synthesis
There is the fusion of the two phonemes brought together by
morpheme combination into a single new phoneme.
6. Stress shift, gradation
In many cases the addition of an affix to a word is accompanied by a
shift in stress called stress shift
7. Suppletion
This type of morphophonemic change is the occurrence of the
allomorph completely different in phonemic structure from the normal form.
Those are some common change of morphophonemic in English. If we can predict the rule
behind the different kind of pronunciation or monomorphemic that happened, it will make it
easier for us to learn English

From the explanation above, We can conclude that Morphophonemic Process is a

process which happens to combine word ( morpheme), it will make changing the sound (
pronunciation) and doesn’t change the meaning. Sometimes, it changes the phoneme of
morphemes. It usually related with suffixes, Free and Bound Morpheme, allomorphs and
inflectional Morpheme.
A. What is Morphophonemics?
Morphophonemics is a branch of linguistics dealing with various kinds
of morphophonemic changes. Morphophonemic changes are phonemic
changes when two or more morphemes are combined into a single
word.
In English there are ten types of morphophonemic changes. Each of
them is described briefly as follows:

B. Kinds of Morphophonemic Changes

1. Loss of phoneme
One or more phonemes that are present in the normal allomorph may
be missing in another allomorph.
Examples:
{in-} -> /i-/ in irregular, illegal.
{-Z2} -> /-0/ in students’, pianists’.

2. Addition of phoneme
One phoneme which is not present in the normal allomorph may be
added to another allomorph.
Examples:
a. The phoneme /-n-/ is added to the normal form of {solemn}
pronounced /solem/ in solemnize.
b. The phoneme /-g-/ is added to the normal form of {long} in {longer}
and {longest}.

3. Consonant change
A consonant changes to another consonant. A very common type of
consonant change is voicing, a voiceless consonant changes to a voiced
consonant.
Examples:
a. The phoneme /-0/ is changed into /-th-/ in {paths}
b. The phoneme /-s-/ is changed to /-z-/ in {resist}.

4. Assimilation: A phonemic change which takes place when two

morphemes are combined results in neighbouring phonemes
becoming more like each other.
Examples:
a. The negative prefix {in-} becomes /im-/ in impossible, imbalance.
b. The prefix {en-} becomes /em-/ in empower, embitter.

5. Dissimilation: The dissimilation takes place when two morphemes are

combined results in neighbouring phonemes becoming less like each
other.
Examples:
The negative prefix {in-} becomes /ig-/ in ignoble, ignominious

6. Synthesis: It is the fusion of two consonants into a single new

phoneme.
Examples:
a. /-t-/ + /-y-/ becomes /-e/ in nature
b. /-s-/ + /-y-/ becomes /-s-/ in pressure

7. Change of syllabic vowel or diphthong

It is the substitution of another syllabic vowel or diphthong for the one
which appears in the normal allomorph.
Examples:
a. /-e-/  /-ou-/ in swell becomes swollen.
b. /-iy-/ -> /-e-/ in please becomes pleasant.

8. Stress shift: It usually happens when a certain affix is added

to a word.
Examples:
a. Syntax  syntactic
b. Linguist  linguistic

9. Gradation: When the process of derivation involves a stress shift; it

usually also involves certain types of vowel change.
Examples: instrument  instrumental
Refer  reference

10. Suppletion: It is the occurance of an allomorph completely different

in its phonemic structure from the normal form.
Examples: ox + {-Z1}  oxen
Go + {-D1}  went.