This article is about a lingustic term. See Pseudomorph for another meaning of the word. In geology, a pseudomorph is a mineral compound resulting from a substitution process in which the appearance and dimensions remain constant, but the mineral which makes up the chief component of the compound is replaced by another. ...

In linguistics an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. The meaning remains the same, while the sound can vary. Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest language unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

For example, in the English language the past tense morpheme is -ed. It occurs in several allomorphs depending on its phonological environment, assimilating voicing of the previous segment or inserting a schwa when following an alveolar stop: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

• as /əd/ in 'hunted' or 'banded',
• as /d/ in 'buzzed',
• as /t/ in 'fished'

Allomorphy can also exist in case distinctions, as in Classic Sanskrit: Sanskrit ( संस्कृतम् ; pronunciation: ) is an Indo-European classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ...

The nominative /vaːk/ is the basic form of the morpheme and, because of Pre-Indic palatalazation of velars and the merging of /e/ and /o/ into /a/ (making the alternation unpredictable on phonetic grounds), morphophonemic variation has occurred that isn’t directly related to phonological processes. The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ...

See also

• Consonant mutation
• Grassmann's Law

Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. ... Grassmanns Law is a rule of phonology in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit which states that if an aspirated consonant is followed by an aspirated consonant in the next syllable, the first one loses the aspiration. ...

Reference

• Jeffers, Robert J. and Lehiste, Ilse (1979). Principles and Methods for Historical Linguistics. MIT press.