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MORPHOPHONEMIC RULES
This is a phenomenon which can be detected elsewhere. Is Serbian (Junak, Junae, Junaci)- the word
final phoneme is realized in different phonological environments as /k/, /t/ or /ts/, making thus formally
the difference between nominative case singular, vocative singular and nominative plural.
Lexical and grammatical units that interact in lexical terms have mutual effect in processes of world
building. At times it is the base that has a stronger influence than the affix, so that the affix undergoes a
formal transformation.
Morphophonemic rules can affect either the base or the affix that is to be added.
> ILLITERATE
> IMMORTAL
> IRREGULAR
This is most often caused by the tendency to facilitate the pronunciation of the two morphemes in the
combination, by trying to use phonemes which are related or similar according to the criterion of the
place of articulation. If the last prefixal phoneme changes completely and is identified with initial in the
root, it practically merges with it and disappears in pronunciation.
There is also PARTIAL ASSIMILATION when the last prefixal phoneme is not completely merged,
but changed into another from the set of phonemes articulated on the same place of articulation. Bilabial
plosives have the greatest strength for assimilating other phonemes into bilabials.
a) EN + BELLISH > EMBELLISH
b) IN + BALANCE > IMBALANCE
c) IN + POSSIBLE > IMPOSSIBLE
2) DISSIMILATION
A process quite opposite to assimilation, as the name itself indicates. With this stage,
two phonemes form two different morphemes, most often the last of prefix and the first of the root are
dissimilated in such a way that they are no longer the same phoneme, but the first one is changed into
a different one. The reason for that is easier morpheme identification. The difference may be in the place of
articulation, or another sound quality. This is not frequently present change.
a) IN + NOBLE = INNOBLE
> IGNOBLE
b) IN + NOMINY = INNOMINY > IGNOMINY
3) SYNTHESIS
= ACTION /`kn/
= EXPOSURE /ik`sp3/
= MOISTURE /`moist/
d) PRESS
+ URE
= PRESSURE /`pre/
Voicing refers to the change of the phonemic content of the base when an affix is to be attached.
The final consonant of the base is changed to match the consonant nature of the initial phoneme in the
affix. This normally occurs when the noun plural suffix for regular plural formation is to be added to a
nominal base. The voiced /z/ exerts a strong voicing influence on the final labiodental and interdental
fricative consonants that end certain nouns. In this case, the voiceless consonants /f/ and // assume the
form of their voiced counterparts /v/ and //.
Calf > calves ; knife > knives; leaf > leaves; life > lives; thief > thieves; wife > wives; wolf >
wolves.
This morphemic rule does not apply consistently, as many exceptions would ascertain, such as
chiefs, beliefs, etc., nor does it occur in similar morphological and phonological circumstances, such as the
case of genitive case markation wifes, thiefs, etc.
2) LOSS OF THE PHONEMES
With this change on or more than one phoneme is dropped from the original morpheme and its
phonological content is altered. When we say original, we mean the most usual allomorph of a particular
morpheme, the default allomorph, so to speak.
Aristocrat + -acy > aristocracy; enemy + ity > enmity; meter + -ic > metric;
3) ADDITION OF THE PHONEMES
As opposed to the previous one, this change involves adding another phoneme to the
phonological content of the morpheme. This is not a very customary change in English, and usually
occurs with so called silent letters in writing which represent no phonemes in the root. This is to prove,
once again that in morphology it is the phonemic content of morphemes that matters and not the
orthographic one.
Simple consonant change means that the last or final consonant in a morpheme undergoes a
change of sorts when a suffix is to be added. This is quite frequent phenomenon in English, particularly
when it comes to deriving adjectives from verbs.
Gradation is the complex change in the sense that it involves two processes occurring one after the
other. It is the case that after adding certain derivational suffixes, the main stress of the word shifts from the
first syllable onward and is observed on another syllable, usually the second. This actually brings about the
weakening of the vowel in the first syllable, so that it reduces to a half sound of //. Apparently, the syllabic
vowel has changed in quality and we call this occurrence vowel change. Thus, gradation is a combining of
shifting of the stress and changing of the vowel.
By Gorana avi