Most of the forms of lexeme formation that we’ve looked at so far have involved adding something to a base (or combining bases).1 Some languages, however, have means of lexeme formation that involve changing the quality of an internal vowel or consonant of a base, root, or stem; sometimes this internal change occurs alone, and sometimes in conjunction with affixation of some sort. Such processes are called internal stem change or apophony.

Vowel changes: ablaut and umlaut

 Example (7) gives some words where internal vowels change:

In Manchu, in forming the female equivalent of a male noun, back vowels become front vowels. In Muskogee, verb stems have five forms each of which can be used in a number of verbal contexts (completive, incompletive, durative, and so on). Three of these forms are differentiated by the length and tonal patterns on their vowels. For class I, stems have short vowels and no special tonal accent. Class III stems have long vowels and falling tonal accents, and class IV have long vowels and no special accent. Morphological processes that affect the quality, quantity, or tonal patterns of vowels are often referred to as ablaut.

In German, when certain suffixes like the diminutive suffix -lein are added to a stem, the stem vowel becomes a front vowel. Historically, this fronting was a phonological process that occurred when a following suffix itself contained a front vowel; this process is called umlaut. Over time, the front vowels were lost in some suffixes or became back vowels, as is the case with the diminutive suffix -lein (pronounced [lain]).

الاكثر قراءة في Morphology

Words and lexemes, types and tokens

Kinds of morphemes

Types of compounds

Predictable allomorphy

Unpredictable or partially predictable allomorphy

The index of synthesis and the index of fusion

Derivational and inflectional morphemes

What do affixes mean?

Morphs and allomorphs

Free and bound morphemes

Kamhmu

Lexical and functional morphemes

Multiple processes

Problems in morphological description

Productivity versus creativity

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم الشؤون الطبية يقدم الخدمات الصحية والعلاجية لزائري مدينة سامراء

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تقدم خدماتها لزائري مرقد الإمامين العسكريين (عليهما السلام) في سامراء

المجمَع العلمي ووفد وزارة التربية يبحثان سبل التعاون المشترك

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يصدر العدد 192 من مجلة الرياحين للأطفال

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ثورة طبية.. الذكاء الاصطناعي يكشف سرطان الكلى في وقت قياسي

لتعزيز الطاقة والتغلب على التعب.. عليك بـ7 طرق بسيطة

لتحسين الهضم والتحكم في الشهية.. ما أفضل وقت لتناول التمر؟

خبراء يكشفون تأثير الاستحمام في الظلام على جودة النوم !

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

إزالة ثاني أكسيد الكربون من الغلاف الجوي.. ما دور المحيطات والبحار؟

نظائر الهيليوم مقياس لاكتشاف رواسب الذهب.. كيف ذلك؟

الصين تطلق أول ناقلة نفط خام ذكية في العالم تعمل بالميثانول

الزمن على المريخ أسرع من الأرض.. دراسة علمية تكشف الفوارق

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Constituent structure

A typology of word structure

Analyzing position classes

Representing word structure

Different kinds of morphemes

Morphemes Definition of “morpheme”

Analyzing word structure

Mirror in nominal morphology

Appendix 2: Hapax legomena from the Cobuild corpus

Appendix 1: 20th century neologisms from the OED

Morphological Productivity Structural Constraints in English Derivation Conclusion

Verbal derivation and the separation hypothesis