| allomorph |
| Definition -
A variant of a morpheme that sounds different than the morpheme, but not sufficiently different for it to be considered a different morpheme.
Notes: 1. Allomorphs are to morphemes what allophones are to phonemes. |
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Example - In English the past-tense morpheme ed can be expressed by the allomorphs /əd/ (as in stunted), /d/ (as in buzzed), and /t/ (as in fished). |
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Etymology - The word was coined by combining the Greek allos, other, with morpheme. It was initially used to describe chemical structure variations. |
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Oxford English Dictionary - Its first citation is from 1948: "Morphemic alternants can conveniently be called allomorphs…" (E. A. Nida in Language XXIV. 420 ) |