In linguistics, apophony (also ablaut, gradation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, internal inflection) is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information (often inflectional). Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... For the topic in theoretical computer science, see Formal grammar Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. ... Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ...

Description

Apophony is exemplified in English as the internal vowel alternations that produce such related words as The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

• sing, sang, sung, song
• rise, raise
• bind, band
• goose, geese

The difference in these vowels marks variously a difference in tense or aspect (e.g. sing/sang/sung), transitivity (rise/raise), part of speech (sing/song, bind/band), or grammatical number (goose/geese). Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects. ... In grammar, a part of speech or word class is defined as the role that a word (or sometimes a phrase) plays in a sentence. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ...

Similarly, there are consonant alternations which are also used grammatically:

• belief, believe
• house (noun), house (verb)   (phonetically: [haʊs] (noun), [haʊz] (verb))

That these sound alternations function grammatically can be seen as they are often equivalent to grammatical suffixes (an external modification). Compare the following: Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Present Tense	Past Tense
jump	jumped
sing	sang
Singular	Plural
book	books
goose	geese

The vowel alternation between i and a indicates a difference between present and past tense in the pair sing/sang. Here the past tense is indicated by the vowel a just as the past tense is indicated on the verb jump with the past tense suffix -ed. Likewise, the plural suffix -s on the word books has the same grammatical function as the presence of the vowel ee in the word geese (where ee alternates with oo in the pair goose/geese).

Most instances of apophony develop historically from changes due to phonological assimilation that are later grammaticalized (or morphologized) when the environment causing the assimilation is lost. Such is the case with English goose/geese and belief/believe. Phonology (Greek phone = voice/sound and logos = word/speech) is a subfield of grammar (see also linguistics). ... Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. ... In historical linguistics, grammaticalisation (also known as grammaticisation or grammatisation) is a process of linguistic change by which a content word (lexical morpheme) changes into a function word or further into a grammatical affix. ...

Types of apophony

Apophony may involve various types of alternations, including vowels, consonants, prosodic elements (such as tone, syllable length), and even smaller features, such as nasality (on vowels). Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... In linguistics, prosody refers to intonation, rhythm, and vocal stress in speech. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics, the timing in a language comprises the rhythmic qualities of speech, in particular how syllables are distributed across time. ... In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that air escapes partially or wholly through the nose during the production of the sound. ...

The sound alternations may be used inflectionally or derivationally. The particular function of a given alternation will depend on the language. Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... In linguistics, derivation is the process of creating new lexemes from other lexemes, for example, by adding a derivational affix. ...

Vowel apophony (ablaut)

Apophony often involves vowels. Indo-European ablaut (also called Indo-European vowel gradation) is a well attested example. The English example previously cited above demonstrates vowel ablaut. Another example is from Dinka: In linguistics, the term ablaut designates a system of vowel gradation (i. ... Dinka Dialects Northeastern (Padang) (Dialects: Abiliang, Dongjol, Luac, Ngok-Sobat, Ageer, Rut, Thoi) Northwestern (Ruweng) (Dialects: Alor, Ngok-Kordofan, Pan Aru, Pawany) South Central (Agar) (Dialects: Aliap, Ciec, Gok, Agar) Southeastern (Bor) (Dialects: Bor (Athoc,Gok), Nyarweng, Tuic) Southwestern (Rek) (Dialects: Rek, Abiem, Aguok, Apuk, Awan, Lau, Luac, Malual, Paliet...

Singular	Plural	gloss	vowel alternation
dom	dum	'field/fields'	(o-u)
kat	kɛt	'frame/frames'	(a-ɛ)

(Bauer 2003:35)

The vowel alternation may involve more than just a change in vowel quality. In Athabascan languages, such as Navajo, verbs have series of stems where the vowel alternates (sometimes with an added suffix) indicating a different tense-aspect. Navajo vowel ablaut, depending on the verb, may be a change in vowel, vowel length, nasality, and/or tone. For example, the verb stem -kaah/-ką́ "to handle an open container" has a total of 16 combinations of the 5 modes and 4 aspects, resulting in 7 different verb stem forms (i.e. -kaah, -kááh, -kaał, -kááł, -ka’, -ká, -ką́). Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of distantly related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, and of their language family. ... Reading Adahooniigii — The Navajo Language Monthly Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that air escapes partially or wholly through the nose during the production of the sound. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ...

Another verb stem -géésh/-gizh "to cut" has a different set of alternations and mode-aspect combinations, resulting in 3 different forms (i.e. -géésh, -gizh, -gish):

Prosodic apophony

Various prosodic elements, such as tone, syllable length, and stress, may be found in alternations. For example, Vietnamese has the following tone alternations which are used derivationally: In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ...

		tone alternation
đây "here"	đấy "there"	(ngang tone-sắc tone)
bây giờ "now"	bấy giờ "then"	(ngang tone-sắc tone)
kia "there"	kìa "yonder"	(ngang tone-huyền tone)
cứng "hard"	cửng "(to) have an erection"	(sắc tone-hỏi tone)

(Nguyễn 1997:42-44)

Albanian uses different vowel lengths to indicate number and grammatical gender on nouns: In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ...

[ɡuːr] "stone"	[ɡur] "stones"
[dy] "two (masculine)"	[dyː] "two (feminine)"

(Asher 1994:1719)

English has alternating stress patterns that indicate whether related words are nouns (first syllable stressed) or verbs (second syllable stressed):

noun	verb
pérvert	pervért
ínsult	insúlt
pérmit	permít
cónvict	convíct

Prosodic alternations are sometimes analyzed as not as a type of apophony but rather as prosodic affixes, which are known, variously, as suprafixes, superfixes, or simulfixes. Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Consonant apophony (mutation)

Main article: Consonant mutation

Consonant alternation is commonly known as consonant mutation. Bemba indicates causative verbs through alternation of the stem-final consonant. Here the alternation involves spirantization and palatalization: Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. ... Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. ... Bemba, also known as Chibemba and Ichibemba, is a Bantu language that is spoken primarily in Zambia but is also spoken in surrounding countries. ... Spirantization is a lenition process. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ...

Intransitive Verb	Causative Verb
luba "to be lost"	lufya "to cause to be lost"
koma "to be deaf"	komya "to cause to be deaf"
pona "to fall"	ponya "to cause to fall"
enda "to walk"	ensha "to cause to walk"
lunga "to hunt"	lunsha "to cause to hunt"
kula "to grow"	kusha "to cause to grow"

(Kula 2000:174)

Celtic languages are well-known for their initial consonant mutations. The Celtic languages are the languages descended from Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. ...

Stem alternations and other morphological processes

Stem modifications (i.e. apophony) may co-occur with other morphological processes, such as affixation. An example of this is in the formation of plural nouns in German: Affixation occurs when a bound morpheme is attached to a root morpheme. ...

Singular	Plural
Buch "book"	Bücher "books"
Haus "house"	Häuser "houses"

Here the singular/plural distinction is indicated through ablaut and additionally by a suffix -er in the plural form. English also displays similar forms with a -ren suffix in the plural and a -en suffix in the past participle forms along with the internal vowel alternation:

child (singular) [ʧaɪld]	children (plural) [ʧɪldrən]
drive (infinitive) [draɪv]	driven (past participle) [drɪvən]

A more complicated example comes from Chickasaw where the positive/negative distinction in verbs displays vowel ablaut along with prefixation (ak-) and infixation (-'-): The Chickasaw language (Chikashshanompa, IPA ) is a Native American language of Muskogean family. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Positive	Negative
hilhali "I'm dancing"	akhi'lho "I'm not dancing"

Vowel alternation in Indo-European

In Indo-European linguistics, ablaut is the vowel alternation that produces such related words as sing, sang, sung, and song. The difference in the vowels results from the alternation (in the Proto-Indo-European language) of the vowel e with the vowel o or with no vowel. For a more detailed explanation see Indo-European ablaut. Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics, dealing with the Indo-European languages. ... The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ... In linguistics, the term ablaut designates a system of vowel gradation (i. ...

To cite a few other examples of Indo-European ablaut, English has a certain class of verbs (i.e. strong verbs) in which the vowel changes to indicate a different grammatical tense-aspect. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Germanic language family is one of the language groups which resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ...

Infinitive	Preterite	Past Participle	vowel alternation
swim	swam	swum	(i-a-u) phonetically: [ɪ-æ-ʌ]
fall	fell	fallen	(a-e-a) phonetically: [ɔ-ɛ-ɔ]
drive	drove	driven	(i-o-i) phonetically: [aɪ-o-ɪ]

As the examples above show, a change in the vowel of the verb stem creates a different verb form. (Note that some of the verbs also have a suffix in the past participle form.) (See also English grammar: Irregular verbs.) For a more detailed explanation of how strong verbs are formed in English and related languages, see Germanic strong verb. Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. ... English grammar is a body of rules specifying how meanings are created in English. ... In the Germanic languages, strong verbs are those which mark their past tenses by means of ablaut. ...

In Indo-European linguistics, umlaut is the vowel alternation that produces such related words as foot and feet or tell and told. The difference in the vowels results from the influence (in Proto-Germanic or a later Germanic language) of an i or y (which has since been lost) on the vowel which (in these examples) becomes e. For a more detailed explanation see Germanic umlaut or I-mutation. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... In linguistics, umlaut (from German um- around/the other way + Laut sound) is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. ... I-mutation is what umlaut is called when it applies to English. ...

To cite another example of umlaut, some English weak verbs show umlaut in the present tense. In Germanic languages, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group. ...

Infinitive	Preterite Past Participle	vowel alternation
bring	brought	(i-ou) phonetically: [ɪ-ɔ]

A-mutation and U-mutation are processes analogous to umlaut but involving the influence of an a (or other non-high vowel) or u respectively instead of an i. A-mutation was a vowel harmony process that took place at the late Proto-Germanic stage (perhaps around 200 AD), and caused a high vowel to become lowered when a following syllable contained a non-high vowel (not just /a/; hence the term is a misnomer). ... A-mutation was a vowel harmony process that took place at the late Proto-Germanic stage (perhaps around 200 AD), and caused a high vowel to become lowered when a following syllable contained a non-high vowel (not just /a/; hence the term is a misnomer). ...

Note that in Indo-European historical linguistics the terms ablaut and umlaut refer to different phenomena. They are not interchangeable. The same terms are also used in linguistics to generally refer to analogous processes as described in the ablaut vs. umlaut section below.

Apophony vs. transfixation (root-and-pattern)

The nonconcatenative root-and-pattern morphology of the Afro-Asiatic languages is sometimes described in terms of apophony. The alternation patterns in many of these languages is quite extensive involving vowels and consonant gemination (i.e. doubled consonants). The alternations below are of Modern Standard Arabic (the symbol < ː > indicates gemination on the preceding consonant): Nonconcatenative morphology is an account of morphology developed in the 1980s by J. J. McCarthy and inspired by Autosegmental phonology. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family (Languages of Africa) with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Modern Standard Arabic is the form of Arabic currently used in Arabic books, newspapers and nearly all written media. ...

word	gloss	alternation pattern
katab	"to write"	(a - a)
kataba	"he wrote"	(a - a - a)
kaatab	"to correspond with"	(aa - a)
kattab	"to cause to write"	(a - ːa)
kuttib	"to be caused to write"	(u - ːi)
kitaab	"book"	(i - aa)
kutub	"books"	(u - u)
kaatib	"writer"	(aa - i)
kuttaab	"writers"	(u - ːaa)

For other examples, see archaic plurals in Amharic, Broken plural, Triconsonantal root. Note: This article contains special characters. ... In linguistics, broken plurals is a grammatical phenomenon typical in many Semitic languages of the Middle East and Ethiopia in which a singular noun is broken to form a plural by having its root consonant embedded in a different frame, rather than by merely adding a prefix or suffix to... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

A diagram of an autosegmental representation of the Arabic word muslim within linguistic theory. This differs from an analysis based on apophony.

Other analyses of these languages consider the patterns not to be sound alternations, but rather discontinuous roots with discontinuous affixes, known as transfixes (also simulfixes or suprafixes). Some theoretical perspectives call up the notion of morphological templates or morpheme "skeletons". Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

Note that it would also be possible to analyze English in this way as well, where the alternation of goose/geese could be explained as a basic discontinuous root g-se that is filled out with an infix -oo- "(singular)" or -ee- "(plural)". Many would consider this type of analysis for English to be less desirable as this type of infixal morphology is not very prevalent throughout English and the morphemes -oo- and -ee- would be exceedingly rare. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Replacive morphemes & apophony

Another analytical perspective on sound alternations treats the phenomena not as merely alternation but rather a "replacive" morpheme that replaces part of a word. In this analysis, the alternation between goose/geese may be thought of as goose being the basic form where -ee- is a replacive morpheme that is substituted for oo.

goose → g-ee-se

This usage of the term morpheme (which is actually describing a replacement process, and not a true morpheme), however, is more in keeping with Item-and-Process models of morphology instead of Item-and-Arrangement models. (See Morphology (linguistics) for further discussion of morphological models.) For other uses, see Morphology. ...

Ablaut vs. umlaut

Main article: Germanic umlaut

The Germanic scholars who coined the terms ablaut and umlaut in the 19th century used them to distinguish two types of vowel alternation patterns with differing origins and differing reflexes in the modern languages. In this usage, umlaut is a specific case of vowel alternation that has developed from a historical instance of regressive vowel harmony. Indo-European ablaut is a different vowel alternation of uncertain origin. In purely descriptive (synchronic) terms, Germanic umlaut is a regular system that always involves vowel fronting, whereas in the modern languages ablaut appears to have no regularity. In linguistics, umlaut (from German um- around/the other way + Laut sound) is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. ... In linguistics, umlaut (from German um- around/the other way + Laut sound) is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. ... Vowel harmony (also metaphony) is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

This traditional distinction is retained by historical (diachronic) linguists, and is particularly important in the context of Indo-European evolution. It is rather less important for descriptive studies, where for most purposes the vowel alternation in foot/feet is analogous to that in sing/sang/sung. However, the regularity of Germanic umlaut means that this distinction remains standard in textbooks for learners of German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages. (As an illustration, the preceding examples translate as follows into German: Fuß/Füße [Umlaut], singen/sang/gesungen [Ablaut].) Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ...

Later linguists have broadened the meaning of ablaut to refer to vowel alternation generally, and of umlaut to refer also to other types and instances of regressive vowel harmony. When the terminology is used in this more inclusive way, umlaut is considered a sub-set of ablaut. Ambiguity can of course be avoided by using alternative terms (apophony, gradation, alternation, internal modification) for the broader sense of the word.

Ablaut-motivated compounding

Ablaut reduplication or ablaut-motivated compounding is a type of word formation of "expressives" in English (such as onomatopoeia). Examples of these include: Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Look up onomatopoeia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• tick-tock
• criss-cross
• cling-clang
• snip-snap

Here the words are formed by a reduplication of a base and an alternation of the internal vowel. (See English reduplication). Reduplication, in linguistics, is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or only part of it, is repeated. ... Reduplication, in linguistics, is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or only part of it, is repeated. ...

Some examples in Japanese:

• kasa-koso (rustle)
• gata-goto (rattle)

See also

• Alternation (linguistics)
• Indo-European ablaut
• Consonant mutation
• Germanic umlaut
• references for ablaut
• Nonconcatenative morphology
• Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, Alternation is when a set of morphosyntactic properties is phonologically expressed in two or more different ways in different words. ... In linguistics, the term ablaut designates a system of vowel gradation (i. ... Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. ... In linguistics, umlaut (from German um- around/the other way + Laut sound) is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. ... Nonconcatenative morphology is an account of morphology developed in the 1980s by J. J. McCarthy and inspired by Autosegmental phonology. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ...

Bibliography

• Anderson, Stephen R. (1985). Inflectional morphology. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: Grammatical categories and the lexicon (Vol. 3, pp. 150-201). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Especially section 1.3 "Stem modifications").
• Asher, R. E. (Ed.). (1994). The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-035943-4.
• Bauer, Laurie. (2003). Introducing linguistic morphology (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
• Bauer, Laurie. (2004). A glossary of morphology. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
• Hamano, Shoko. (1998). The Sound-Symbolic System of Japanese. CSLI Publications,Stanford.
• Haspelmath, Martin. (2002). Understanding morphology. London: Arnold.
• Kula, Nancy C. (2000). The phonology/morphology interface: Consonant mutations in Bemba. In H. de Hoop & T. van der Wouden (Eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2000 (pp. 171-183). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Nguyễn, Đình-Hoà. (1997). Vietnamese: Tiếng Việt không son phấn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55619-733-0.
• Sapir, Edward. (1921). Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
• Spencer, Andrew; & Zwicky, Arnold M. (Eds.). (1998). The handbook of morphology. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Young, Robert W., & Morgan, William, Sr. (1987). The Navajo language: A grammar and colloquial dictionary (rev. ed.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1014-1.