- The variants of Morpheme {in-}

The morpheme {in-} is realized by different phonetic representations depending on the phonemes following it. The phonetic representation (pronunciation) is not always symbolized by the letters. The word incomplete, for example, which is the word formation of the prefix {in-} and the free morpheme complete, is pronounced / iŋk∂mpli:t/ when pronounced rapidly. The phone [ŋ] is not written.
The change of phonetic representation because of the meeting of phonemes in morphological process is called morphophonemic change. The morpheme {in-} which attaches to the bases with bilabial phonemes in initial position will change to im-. In other words, the morpheme {in-} will be pronounced [im] if it meets the bilabial phonemes. The examples are as follows:
Prefix Base /bilabial/ Derived word
in- balance imbalance
in- perfect imperfect
in- moral immoral

The morphophonemic process of the prefix {in-} to im- is illustrated as: {in-} + base (initial bilabial phonemes) --> [im-].
The morpheme {in-} which attaches to the bases with the phoneme /k/ in initial position will change to /iŋ-/. The phone [ŋ] is not symbolized by the orthographic symbol but we can hear this sound when it is pronounced rapidly as explained above. The examples are as follows:

Prefix Base /k/ Derived word
in- complete incomplete / iŋk∂mpli:t/
in- correct incorrect /iŋk∂rekt/
in- consistent inconsistent /iŋk∂nsist∂nt/

The morphophonemic process of the prefix {in-} to [iŋ-] is illustrated as: {in-} + base (the phoneme /k/) --> / iŋ-/.
The morpheme {in-} which attaches to the bases with liquid phonemes in initial position will change to liquid phonemes. The morpheme {in-} in this case will be pronounced like the phone of the liquid phonemes which follow it. The examples are as follows:

Prefix Base /liquids/ Derived word
in- legal illegal
in- rational irrational

The morphophonemic process of the change of the prefix{ in-} to liquids is illustrated as: {in-} + base (initial liquid phonemes) --> / liquids/.
The morpheme in- which attaches to the bases with vowel phonemes in initial position will be pronounced /in-/. The examples are as follows:

Prefix Base /liquids/ Derived word
in- efficient inefficient

The morphophonemic process of the change of the prefix in- with vowels is illustrated as: {in-} + base (initial vowel phonemes) --> /in-/.
Based on the explanation above, the morpheme {in-} has the allomorphs /im-/, /iŋ-/, /ir-/,/il-/ and /in-/ and can be illustrated as follows:

/im-/
/iŋ-/
{in-} -----> /ir-/
/il-/
/in-/

morpheme allomorphs

English Plural Morpheme

In English, to form the plural noun from the singular one is by adding the plural marker to the noun. The common plural marker or the plural morpheme is the suffix –s, although in reality this morpheme can be realized by the phonetic representations [s], [z], or [iz]. These phonetic representations or allomorphs are conditioned by the phones of the base to which the plural morpheme is added. Some countable nouns are not added with the suffix –s to make them plural but the number of these types are not as many as those added with the suffix –s. Therefore, this plural morpheme is usually called the morpheme –s because this suffix frequently occurs in the plural noun formation. The following are the examples of the words containing the plural morpheme or the morpheme {-s} which is pronounced /s/, /z/, or /iz/


baby (singular) + -s ----> babies [beibiz] (plural)
bag (singular) + -s ----> bags [bægz] (plural)
book (singular) + -s ----> books [buks] (plural)
box (singular) + -s ----> boxes [boksiz] (plural)
cat (singular) + -s ----> cats [kæts] (plural)
dog (singular) + -s ----> dogs [dogz] (plural)

The plural morpheme or the morpheme {-s} is not always realized by the suffix –s. The following are the examples:

man (singular) + -s ---> men (plural)
woman (singular) + -s ---> women (plural)
child (singular) + -s ---> children (plural)
ox (singular) + -s ---> oxen (plural)
tooth (singular) + -s ---> teeth (plural)
foot (singular) + -s ---> feet (plural)
sheep (singular) + -s ---> sheep (plural)
deer (singular) + -s ---> deer (plural)