HOW TO REALIZE THE Z AND ED ALLOMORPHS

• Allomorphs exist as variants of the same morpheme. Basically, there are two allomorphic variations and they are ed and s. We’ll look at how they manifest in phonological environments now. Welcome.

The ED MORPHEME

when ed is added to a word, it can be pronounced in three ways and these are /t/, /d/ and /Id/

When ed is added to a word that ends with a voiceless sound, it is pronounced as /t/. Take the word, rake for example. The last sound is /k/ and it is voiceless. When ed is added, it becomes/t/ and the word is pronounced as /reikt/

More words include SLAPPED, PUSHED, TOUCHED, SLIPPED, KISSED. The ed in these words will be pronounced as /t/.

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When ed is added to a word that ends with a voiced sound, it is pronounced as /d/. For example, begged is formed from two morphemes which are beg+ed. Beg ends with /g/ which is a voiced sound. Hence, the addition of ED will make the word be pronounced as /begd/
When a word ends with either T or D, the ED will be pronounced as /id/. Example is PLANTED that’d be pronounced as /pla:ntid/
For clarity, a voiced sound will cause a vibration in the vocal tract but a voiceless sound will not cause a vibration. Place your thumb and index finger on your Adam’s apple and pronounce /z/ as in zoo. It causes a vibration, right? Now, pronounce /s/ as in sin. No vibration, right? That’s a voiceless consonant.

HOW TO REALISE THE Z-MORPHEME

Similarly, when S it can be pronounced in three ways and these are: /s/, /z/ and /iz/
When S is added to a word that ends with a voiceless sound, it is pronounced as /s/. Example is rake+s. The word will be pronouncedas/reiks/.

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When S is added to a word that ends with a voiced sound, it is pronounced as /z/. An example is BEG+S. This will give us /begz/

Note: All vowels are voiced. All nasal sounds are voiced. Other voiced sounds are [z, v, d, b, g, l]

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When S or ES comes after a word that ends with S, Z, CH, SH, DGE, GE, it will be pronounced as /iz/. An example is KISS+ES that is pronounced as /kisiz/
Clear enough, right? Now look at the words below and see if you can tell what the ED, S or ES will be pronounced as:

1. Becomes

2. Loves

3. Boys

4. Talked

5. Reasoned

6. Gifted

7. Classes

8. Villages

9. Mangoes

10. Manages