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Allomorph

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Variant forms of a morpheme that a poet may exploit for sonic or semantic effect

Detailed Definition
Allomorph is a variant phonological form of a morpheme that appears in different contexts without changing meaning—e.g., the plural “-s” pronounced as /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/; in poetry, awareness of allomorphs aids in scanning meter and appreciating subtle sonic shifts that affect rhythm and euphony even when spelling remains constant.
Example
Example in poetry:
An allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, such as the plural “-s” pronounced as /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/; in poetry, this affects meter: “cats” (1 syllable) vs. “horses” (2 syllables).
Additional Notes
Allomorph: Variant phonetic forms of a morpheme (e.g., "-ed" pronounced /t/, /d/, or /ɪd/); in poetry, may affect meter or rhyme subtly; important in phonological analysis of verse.
Also Known As
Morpheme variant Form variation Grammatical alternative
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