Types of Morphophonemic Rules (Syntax 3)

Ministry of Higher Education and
Scientific Research
University of Karbala
College of Education
English of Department
Types of morphophonemic rules
Prepared by:
Fatima Hassan
Supervised by:
Asst. Prof. Dr. Muayyad Omran
2022
Insertion rules:
Insertion (or epenthesis) rules are not as common as deletion rules.
Sometimes you may be torn between two analyses – one that proposes an
underlying form that has a segment that deletes in certain environments, and
another that proposes an underlying form that lacks the segment, and
therefore the segment has to be inserted in certain environments. All other
things being equal (Thomas, E. Payne, 2006:79).
Epenthesis A process that inserts a segment in a given environment. For

example, native speakers of Spanish sometimes epenthesize an /e/ before sC
clusters when speaking English, pronouncing squash as if it were esquash
(Aronoff H. and Fudeman K. 2005:262).
Nathan (2008:82) asserts that not only can segments be deleted, sometimes
they can be inserted instead. There seem to be two basic reasons for
insertion: preventing clusters of consonants that violate syllable structure
constraints in the language, and easing transitions between segments that
have multiple incompatibilities. Insertion at the beginning is observed in
Spanish, where the language does not permit onset clusters. Words that are
inherited from Latin with such clusters changed to have an initial /e/
inserted:
especial [espesial] ‘special’
estudiante [estudiante] ‘student’
escuela [eskwela] ‘school’
in Arabic, words which phonologically begin with a vowel actually begin

with a [?], so that 'the pen' is [?alqalamu] .
‫ء‬// Arabic symbol → /ˀ/ Phonetic transcription

Dissimilation rules:
Thomas, E. (2006:80), states that, a dissimilation are very occasionally
morphophonemic rules will adjust the shapes of sounds in order to make
them more distinct from their environments. Such rules may be functionally
motivated when, for example, an important morpheme would otherwise be
inaudible (indistinguishable from its environment). Such rules are quite rare,
and should be proposed only when there is no alternative explanation for a
particular range of facts:
Voicing dissimilation:
Example 1 s→z / C # [voiceless]
Example 2 z→s / C # [voiced]
Dissimilation is when a sound is modified to differ and become less like a

neighboring sound in certain phonetic property, e.g. to make a sequence of
sounds easier to articulate and distinguish. Dissimilation rules change
feature values to make two phonemes in a string more dissimilar.
Dissimilation is rarer than assimilation.
Examples :
fifths, sixths
Fifths: [f I f θ s] [f I f t s]
Three_fricatives_fricative+stop+fricative
This type of rule is often seen among people speaking a language that is not
their native language where the sound contrasts may be difficult so the rule
is applied for ease of production and perception. Dissimilation is the
opposite process of assimilation. It refers to the influence exercised by one
sound segment upon the articulation of another, so that the sound becomes
less similar or different from other neighboring sounds (Crystal, 2008:177).
In Arabic language, dissimilation seems to have similar incentives and
effects to that of the English language. Arab scholars maintain that it is when
sounds geminate together, they become liable to dissimilation. The
geminated sequence of sounds are to be differentiated or an embedded sound
is to be added to the sequence so as to achieve the goal of releasing the
difficulty.
Dissimilation at a distance may also be found in English as in the word

eksetera /eksetərə/ for etcetera /etsetərə/ which shows the influence of the
second /t/ over the first /t/ by changing it to /k/. Moreover, the common
misspelling ect. of the abbreviated form of the word implies dissimilation. In
Arabic, the Quad-root words (words with four sounds) having the sounds in
question to be non-adjacent, show regressive dissimilation in which the first
sound is to be changed due to the effect of the coming one as in:
"‫ "ضمضم‬/d̩amd̩am/ (brave) → "‫"ضرضم‬/d̩ard̩am/ (lion, or brave like a lion).

REFERENCES
Aronoff, M. & Fudeman, K. 2005, What is morphology? Malden: Blackwel.

Crystal, D. (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed).
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Faiq, A. M., & Burhanuddin, I. (2016). The Process of Dissimilation in
English and Arabic: A Comparative Study. International Journal on Studies
in English Language and Literature (IJSELL), Volume 4(6), PP 1-11.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.0406001
Nathan, G. (2008) Phonology. A Cognitive Grammar Introduction. USA.
Thomas, E. Payne. (2006), Exploring Language structure: a Student's
Guide. Cambridge University Press.

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Ministry of Higher Education and

Types of morphophonemic rules

Epenthesis A process that inserts a segment in a given environment. For

especial [espesial] ‘special’

estudiante [estudiante] ‘student’

escuela [eskwela] ‘school’

in Arabic, words which phonologically begin with a vowel actually begin

‫ء‬// Arabic symbol → /ˀ/ Phonetic transcription

Example 1 s→z / C # [voiceless]

Example 2 z→s / C # [voiced]

Dissimilation is when a sound is modified to differ and become less like a

Dissimilation at a distance may also be found in English as in the word

"‫ "ضمضم‬/d̩amd̩am/ (brave) → "‫"ضرضم‬/d̩ard̩am/ (lion, or brave like a lion).

Aronoff, M. & Fudeman, K. 2005, What is morphology? Malden: Blackwel.

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