English phonology

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English phonology is the study of the phonology (i.e., the sound system) of the English language. Like all other languages, spoken English has wide variation in its pronunciation both diachronically and synchronically from dialect to dialect. This variation is especially salient in English, because the language is spoken over such a wide territory, being the predominant language in Australia, Canada, the Commonwealth Caribbean, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, in addition to being spoken as a first or second language by people in countries on every continent, notably South Africa and India. In general, the regional dialects of English are mutually intelligible.

Although there are many dialects of English, the following are usually used as prestige or standard accents: Received Pronunciation for the United Kingdom, General American for the United States and General Australian for Australia.

Contents [hide] 1 Phonemes 1.1 Consonants 1.1.1 Allophones 1.2 Vowels 1.2.1 Reduced vowels 1.2.2 Allophones 1.2.3 Transcription variants 1.3 Stress 1.3.1 Intonation 2 Phonotactics 2.1 Syllable structure 2.1.1 Onset 2.1.2 Nucleus 2.1.3 Coda 2.2 Syllable-level rules 2.3 Word-level rules 3 History of English pronunciation 3.1 æ-tensing 3.2 Bad-lad split 3.3 Cot-caught merger 3.4 Father-bother merger 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External links

Phonemes

See IPA chart for English dialects for concise charts of the English phonemes.

The number of speech sounds in English varies from dialect to dialect, and any actual tally depends greatly on the interpretation of the researcher doing the counting. The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary by John C. Wells, for example, using symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, denotes 24 consonants and 23 vowels used in Received Pronunciation, plus two additional consonants and four additional vowels used in foreign words only. For General American, it provides for 25 consonants and 19 vowels, with one additional consonant and three additional vowels for foreign words. The American Heritage Dictionary, on the other hand, suggests 25 consonants and 18 vowels (including r-colored vowels) for American English, plus one consonant and five vowels for non-English terms [1].

Consonants

The following table shows the consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English. When consonants appear in pairs, fortis consonants (i.e., aspirated or voiceless) appear on the left and lenis consonants (i.e., lightly voiced or voiced) appear on the right:

Consonant phonemes of English

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar2	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal1	m			n			ŋ
Plosive	p  b			t  d			k  ɡ
Affricate					tʃ  dʒ
Fricative		f  v	θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ		(x)3	h
Approximant				ɹ1, 2, 5		j	w4
Lateral				l1, 6

1. Nasals and liquids may be syllabic in unstressed syllables, though these may be analyzed phonemically as /əC/.
2. Postalveolar consonants are usually labialized (e.g., [ʃʷ]), as is word-initial or pre-tonic /r/, though this is rarely transcribed.
3. The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is dialectal, occurring largely in Scottish English. In other dialects, words with these sounds are pronounced with /k/.
4. The sequence /hw/, a voiceless labiovelar approximant [hw̥], is sometimes considered an additional phoneme. For most speakers, words that historically used to have these sounds are now pronounced with /w/; the phoneme /hw/ is retained, for example, in much of the American South and in Scotland.
5. Depending on dialect, /r/ may be an alveolar [ɹ], postalveolar approximant, or labiodental approximant.
6. Many dialects have two allophones of /l/—the "clear" L and the "dark" or velarized L. In some dialects, /l/ may be always clear or always dark.

/p/	pit	/b/	bit
/t/	tin	/d/	din
/k/	cut	/ɡ/	gut
/tʃ/	cheap	/dʒ/	jeep
/f/	fat	/v/	vat
/θ/	thin	/ð/	then
/s/	sap	/z/	zap
/ʃ/	she	/ʒ/	measure
/x/	loch
/w/	we	/m/	map
/l/	left	/n/	nap
/ɹ/	run (also /r/, /ɻ/)	/j/	yes
/h/	ham	/ŋ/	bang

Allophones

Although regional variation is very great across English dialects, some generalizations can be made about pronunciation in all (or at least the vast majority) of English accents:

• The voiceless stops /p t k/ are aspirated at the beginnings of words (for example tomato) and at the beginnings of word-internal stressed syllables (for example potato). They are unaspirated after /s/ (stan, span, scan) and at the ends of syllables.
• For many people, /r/ is somewhat labialized in some environments, as in reed [ɹʷiːd] and tree [tɹʷiː]. In the latter case, the [t] may be slightly labialized as well.^[1]
• In many dialects, /h/ becomes [ç] before [j], as in human [ˈçjuːmən].

Vowels

The vowels of English differ considerably between dialects. Because of this, corresponding vowels may be transcribed with various symbols depending on the dialect under consideration. When considering English as a whole, no specific phonemic symbols are chosen over others; instead, lexical sets are used, each named by a word containing the vowel in question. For example, the vowel of the LOT set ("short o") is transcribed /ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation, /ɔ/ in Australian English, and /ɑ/ in General American. For an overview of the correspondences, see IPA chart for English dialects.

Monophthongs of Received Pronunciation[2] Front Central Back long short long short long short Close iː ɪ uː ʊ Mid ɛ ɜː ə ɔː Open æ ʌ ɑː ɒ

Monophthongs of Australian English Front Central Back long short long short long short Close iː ɪ ʉː ʊ Mid eː e ɜː ə oː ɔ Open æː æ aː a

The monophthong phonemes of General American differ in a number of ways from Received Pronunciation:

1. Vowels are more equal in length, differing mainly in quality.
2. The central vowel of nurse is rhotic /ɝ/ or a syllabic /ɹ̩/.
3. Speakers make a phonemic distinction between rhotic /ɚ/ and non-rhotic /ə/.
4. No distinction is made between /ɒ/ and /ɑː/, nor for many speakers between these vowels and /ɔː/.

Reduced vowels occur in some unstressed syllables. (Other unstressed syllables may have full vowels, which some dictionaries mark as secondary stress.) The number of distinctions made among reduced vowels varies by dialect. In some dialects vowels are centralized but otherwise kept mostly distinct, while in Australia and many US dialects all reduced vowels collapse to a schwa [ə]. In Received Pronunciation, there is a distinct high reduced vowel, which the OED writes ‹ɪ›.

• [ɪ]: roses (merged with [ə] in Australian English)
• [ə]: Rosa’s, runner
• [l̩]: bottle
• [n̩]: button
• [m̩]: rhythm

English diphthongs

	RP	Australian	American
			GA	Canadian
low	/əʊ/	/əʉ/	/oʊ/
loud	/aʊ/	/æɔ/	/aʊ/	/aʊ/
lout				[əʊ]1
lied	/aɪ/	/ɑe/	/aɪ/	/aɪ/
light				[əɪ]1
lane	/eɪ/	/æɪ/	/eɪ/
loin	/ɔɪ/	/oɪ/	/ɔɪ/
leer	/ɪə/	/ɪə/	/ɪɚ/³
lair	/ɛə/²	/eː/ ²	/ɛɚ/³
lure	/ʊə/²	/ʊə/	/ʊɚ/³

1. Canadian English exhibits allophony of /aʊ/ and /aɪ/ called Canadian raising. This phenomenon is also realized (especially for /aɪ/) by many US speakers, notably in the Northeast, as well as in South Atlantic English and the Fens of eastern England. In some areas, especially the Northeast US, /aɪ/) actually shifts to /ʌɪ/.
2. In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to [ɛː] and [oː] respectively.^[3] Australian English speakers more readily monophthongize the former but it is listed here anyway.
3. In rhotic dialects, words like pair, poor, and peer can be analyzed as diphthongs, although other descriptions analyze them as vowels with /r/ in the coda.^[4]

Reduced vowels

Linguists such as Ladefoged^[5] and Bolinger^[6] argue that vowel reduction is phonemic in English, and that there are two "tiers" of vowels in English, full and reduced; traditionally many English dictionaries have attempted to mark the distinction by transcribing unstressed full vowels as having "secondary" stress, though this was later abandoned by the Oxford English Dictionary. Though full unstressed vowels may derive historically from stressed vowels, either because stress shifted over time (such as stress shifting away from the final syllable of French loan words in British English) or because of loss or shift of stress in compound words or phrases (óverseas vóyage from overséas or óverséas plus vóyage), the distinction is not one of stress but of vowel quality (Bolinger 1989:351), and over time, if the word is frequent enough, the vowel will tend to reduce.

English has up to five reduced vowels, though this varies with dialect and speaker. Schwa /ə/ is found in all dialects, and a rhotic schwa ("schwer") /ɚ/ is found in rhotic dialects. Less common is a high reduced vowel ("schwi") /ɪ̈/ (also "/ɪ/"); the two are distinguished by many people in Rosa's /ˈroʊzəz/ vs roses /ˈroʊzɪ̈z/. More unstable is a rounded schwa, /ö/ (also /ɵ/); this contrasts for some speakers in a mission /əˈmɪʃən/, emission /ɪ̈ˈmɪʃən/, and omission /ɵˈmɪʃən/. In words like following, the following vowel is preceded by a [w] even in dialects which do not otherwise have a rounded schwa: [ˈfɒlɵwɪŋ, ˈfɒləwɪŋ]. A high rounded schwa /ʊ̈/ (also "/ʊ/") may be found in words such as into /ˈɪntʊ̈/, though in many dialects this is not be distinguished from /ɵ/.

Though speakers vary, full and reduced unstressed vowels may contrast in pairs of words like Shogun /ˈʃoʊɡʌn/ and slogan /ˈsloʊɡən/, chickaree /ˈtʃɪkəriː/ and chicory /ˈtʃɪkərɪ̈/, Pharaoh /ˈfɛəroʊ/ and farrow /ˈfæroʊ/ (Bolinger 1989:348), Bantu /ˈbæntuː/ and into /ˈɪntʊ̈/ (OED).

 Allophones

• A distinction is made between tense and lax vowels in pairs like beet/bit and bait/bet, although the exact phonetic implementation of the distinction varies from accent to accent. However, this distinction collapses before [ŋ].
• Wherever /r/ originally followed a tense vowel or diphthong (in Early Modern English) a schwa offglide was inserted, resulting in centering diphthongs like [iə] in beer [biəɹ], [uə] in poor [puəɹ], [aɪə] in fire [faɪəɹ], [aʊə] in sour [saʊəɹ], and so forth. This phenomenon is known as breaking. The subsequent history depends on whether the accent in question is rhotic or not: In non-rhotic accents like RP the postvocalic [ɹ] was dropped, leaving [biə, puə, faɪə, saʊə] and the like (now usually transcribed [bɪə, pʊə] and so forth). In rhotic accents like General American, on the other hand, the [əɹ] sequence was coalesced into a single sound, a non-syllabic [ɚ], giving [biɚ, puɚ, faɪɚ, saʊɚ] and the like (now usually transcribed [bɪɹ, pʊɹ, faɪɹ, saʊɹ] and so forth). As a result, originally monosyllabic words like those just mentioned came to rhyme with originally disyllabic words like seer, doer, higher, power.
• In many (but not all) accents of English, a similar breaking happens to tense vowels before /l/, resulting in pronunciations like [piəɫ] for peel, [puəɫ] for pool, [peəɫ] for pail, and [poəɫ] for pole.

Transcription variants

The choice of which symbols to use for phonemic transcriptions may reveal theoretical assumptions or claims on the part of the transcriber. English "lax" and "tense" vowels are distinguished by a synergy of features, such as height, length, and contour (monophthong vs. diphthong); different traditions in the linguistic literature emphasize different features. For example, if the primary feature is thought to be vowel height, then the non-reduced vowels of General American English may be represented as follows:

General American full vowels, vowel height distinctive
i		u
ɪ		ʊ
e	ɚ, ə	o
ɛ		ɔ
æ		ɑ

If, on the other hand, vowel length is considered to be the deciding factor, the following symbols may be chosen:

General American full vowels, vowel length distinctive
iː		uː
i		u
eː	ɹ̩ː	oː
e	ʌ	o
a		aː

(This convention has sometimes been used because the publisher did not have IPA fonts available, though that is seldom an issue any longer.)

If vowel transition is taken to be paramount, then the chart may look like one of these:

General American full vowels, vowel contour distinctive ij uw i u ej ər ow e ə o æ ɑ

or

General American full vowels, vowel contour distinctive ɪi̯ ʊu̯ ɪ ʊ ɛɪ̯ ɚɹ ɔʊ̯ ɛ ʌ ɔ æ ɑ

(The transcriber at left assumes that there is no phonemic distinction between semivowels and approximants, so that /ej/ is equivalent to /eɪ̯/.)

Many linguists combine more than one of these features in their transcriptions, suggesting they consider the phonemic differences to be more complex than a single feature.

General American full vowels, height & length distinctive
iː		uː
ɪ		ʊ
eː	ɝː	oː
ɛ	ʌ	ɔ
æ		ɑː

Stress

Stress is phonemic in English. For example, the words desert and dessert are distinguished by stress, as are the noun a record and the verb to record. Stressed syllables in English are louder than non-stressed syllables, as well as being longer and having a higher pitch. They also tend to have a fuller realization than unstressed syllables.

Examples of stress in English words, using boldface to represent stressed syllables, are holiday, alone, admiration, confidential, degree, and weaker. Ordinarily, grammatical words (auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns, and the like) do not receive stress, whereas lexical words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) must have at least one stressed syllable.

English is a stress-timed language. That is, stressed syllables appear at a roughly steady tempo, and non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this.

Traditional approaches describe English as having three degrees of stress: Primary, secondary, and unstressed. However, if stress is defined as relative respiratory force (that is, it involves greater pressure from the lungs than unstressed syllables), as most phoneticians argue, and is inherent in the word rather than the sentence (that is, it is lexical rather than prosodic), then these traditional approaches conflate two distinct processes: Stress on the one hand, and vowel reduction on the other. In this case, primary stress is actually prosodic stress, whereas secondary stress is simple stress in some positions, and an unstressed but not reduced vowel in others. Either way, there is a three-way phonemic distinction: Either three degrees of stress, or else stressed, unstressed, and reduced. The two approaches are sometimes conflated into a four-way 'stress' classification: primary (tonic stress), secondary (lexical stress), tertiary (unstressed full vowel), and quaternary (reduced vowel). See secondary stress for details.

Initial-stress-derived nouns mean that stress changes in many English words came about between noun and verb senses of a word. For example, a rebel [ˈɹɛb.ɫ̩] (stress on the first syllable) is inclined to rebel [ɹɨ.ˈbɛɫ] (stress on the second syllable) against the powers that be. The number of words using this pattern as opposed to only stressing the second syllable in all circumstances doubled every century or so, now including the English words object, convict, and addict.

 Intonation

Prosodic stress is extra stress given to words when they appear in certain positions in an utterance, or when they receive special emphasis. It normally appears on the final stressed syllable in an intonation unit. So, for example, when the word admiration is said in isolation, or at the end of a sentence, the syllable ra is pronounced with greater force than the syllable ad. (This is traditionally transcribed as /ˌædmɨˈreɪʃən/.) This is the origin of the primary stress-secondary stress distinction. However, the difference disappears when the word is not pronounced with this final intonation.

Prosodic stress can shift for various pragmatic functions, such as focus or contrast. For instance, consider the dialogue

"Is it brunch tomorrow?"

"No, it's dinner tomorrow."

In this case, the extra stress shifts from the last stressed syllable of the sentence, tomorrow, to the last stressed syllable of the emphasized word, dinner. Compare

"I'm going tomorrow." /aɪm ˌɡoʊɪŋ təˈmɒroʊ/

or

"I'm going tomorrow." /aɪm ˌɡoʊɪŋ təˈˈmɒroʊ/

with

"It's dinner tomorrow." /ɪts ˈˈdɪnɚ təˌmɒroʊ/

Although grammatical words generally do not have lexical stress, they do acquire prosodic stress when emphasized. Compare ordinary

"Come in"! /ˈkʌm ɪn/

with more emphatic

"Oh, do come in!" /oʊ ˈˈduː kʌm ˌɪn/

This section requires expansion.

Phonotactics

Most languages of the world syllabify CVCV and CVCCV sequences as /CV.CV/ and /CVC.CV/ or /CV.CCV/, with consonants preferentially acting as the onset of a syllable containing the following vowel. According to one view, English is unusual in this regard, in that stressed syllables attract following consonants,^{[citation needed]} so that ˈCVCV and ˈCVCCV syllabify as /ˈCVC.V/ and /ˈCVCC.V/, as long as the consonant cluster CC is a possible syllable coda.^[7] In addition, according to this view, /r/ preferentially syllabifies with the preceding vowel even when both syllables are unstressed, so that CVrV occurs as /CVr.V/.^[7] However, many scholars do not agree with this view.^[7]

Syllable structure

The syllable structure in English is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C), with a maximal example being strengths (/strɛŋkθs/, although it can be pronounced /strɛŋθs/). Because of an extensive pattern of articulatory overlap, English speakers rarely produce an audible release in consonant clusters.^[8] This can lead to cross-articulations that seem very much like deletions or complete assimilations. For example, hundred pounds may sound like [hʌndɹɛb pʰaʊndz] but X-ray^[9] and electropalatographic^[10][11] studies demonstrate that inaudible and possibly weakened contacts may still be made so that the second /d/ in hundred pounds does not entirely assimilate a labial place of articulation, rather the labial co-occurs with the alveolar one.

When a stressed syllable contains a pure vowel (rather than a diphthong), followed by a single consonant and then another vowel, as in holiday, many native speakers feel that the consonant belongs to the preceding stressed syllable, /ˈhɒl.ɨ.deɪ/. However, when the stressed vowel is a long vowel or diphthong, as in admiration or pekoe, speakers agree that the consonant belongs to the following syllable: /ˈæd.mɨ.ˈreɪ.ʃən/, /ˈpiː.koʊ/. Wells (1990)^[7] notes that consonants syllabify with the preceding rather than following vowel when the preceding vowel is the nucleus of a more salient syllable, with stressed syllables being the most salient, reduced syllables the least, and secondary stress / full unstressed vowels intermediate. But there are lexical differences as well, frequently with compound words but not exclusively. For example, in dolphin and selfish, he argues that the stressed syllable ends in /lf/; in shellfish, the /f/ belongs with the following syllable: /ˈdɒlf.ɪn/, /ˈsɛlf.ɪʃ/ → [ˈdɒlfɨn], [ˈsɛlfɨʃ] vs /ˈʃɛl.fɪʃ/ → [ˈʃɛlˑfɪʃ], where the /l/ is a little longer and the /ɪ/ not reduced. Similarly, in toe-strap the /t/ in a full plosive, as usual in syllable onset, whereas in toast-rack the /t/ is in many dialects reduced to the unreleased allophone it takes in syllable codas, or even elided: /ˈtoʊ.stræp/, /ˈtoʊst.ræk/ → [ˈtʰoˑʊstɹæp], [ˈtoʊs(t̚)ɹʷæk]; likewise nitrate /ˈnaɪ.treɪt/ → [ˈnʌɪtɹ̥ʷeɪt] with a voiceless /r/, vs night-rate /ˈnaɪt.reɪt/ → [ˈnʌɪt̚ɹʷeɪt] with a voiced /r/. Cues of syllable boundaries include aspiration of syllable onsets and (in the US) flapping of coda /t, d/ (a tease /ə.ˈtiːz/ → [əˈtʰiːz] vs. at ease /æt.ˈiːz/ → [æɾˈiːz]), epenthetic plosives like [t] in syllable codas (fence /ˈfɛns/ → [ˈfɛnts] but inside /ɪn.ˈsaɪd/ → [ɪnˈsaɪd]), and r-colored vowels when the /r/ is in the coda vs. labialization when it is in the onset (key-ring /ˈkiː.rɪŋ/ → [ˈkʰiːɹʷɪŋ] but fearing /ˈfiːr.ɪŋ/ → [ˈfɪəɹɪŋ]).

Onset

There is an on-going sound change (yod-dropping) by which /j/ as the final consonant in a cluster is being lost. In RP, words with /sj/ and /lj/ can usually be pronounced with or without this sound, e.g., [suːt] or [sjuːt]. For some speakers of English, including some British speakers, the sound change is more advanced and so, for example, in General American /j/ is also not present after /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/, /θ/, /t/ and /d/. In Welsh English it can occur in more combinations, for example in /tʃj/.

The following can occur as the onset:

All single consonant phonemes except /ŋ/
Plosive plus approximant other than /j/: /pl/, /bl/, /kl/, /ɡl/, /pr/, /br/, /tr/[1], /dr/[1], /kr/, /ɡr/, /tw/, /dw/, /ɡw/, /kw/	play, blood, clean, glove, prize, bring, tree[1], dream[1], crowd, green, twin, dwarf, guacamole, quick
Voiceless fricative plus approximant other than /j/:[2] /fl/, /sl/, /fr/, /θr/, /ʃr/, /sw/, /θw/, /hw/	floor, sleep, friend, three, shrimp, swing, thwart, which
Consonant plus /j/: /pj/, /bj/, /tj/, /dj/, /kj/, /ɡj/, /mj/, /nj/, /fj/, /vj/, /θj/, /sj/, /zj/, /hj/, /lj/	pure, beautiful, tube, during, cute, argue, music, new, few, view, thew, suit, Zeus, huge, lurid
/s/ plus voiceless plosive:[2] /sp/, /st/, /sk/	speak, stop, skill
/s/ plus nasal:[2] /sm/, /sn/	smile, snow
/s/ plus voiceless fricative: /sf/	sphere
/s/ plus voiceless plosive plus approximant:[2][3] /spl/, /spr/, /str/, /skr/, /skw/, /smj/, /spj/, /stj/, /skj/	split, spring, street, scream, square, smew, spew, student, skewer

Notes:

1. In some American dialects (especially as spoken by children), /tr/ and /dr/ tend to affricate, so that tree resembles "chree", and dream resembles "jream".^[12][13][14] This is sometimes transcribed as [tʃr] and [dʒr] respectively, but the pronunciation varies and may, for example, be closer to [tʂ] and [dʐ]^[15] or with a fricative release similar in quality to the rhotic, ie. [tɹ̝̊ɹ̥], [dɹ̝ɹ], or [tʂɻ], [dʐɻ].
2. Many clusters beginning with /ʃ/ and paralleling native clusters beginning with /s/ are found initially in German and Yiddish loanwords, such as /ʃl/, /ʃp/, /ʃt/, /ʃm/, /ʃn/, /ʃpr/ (in words such as schlep, spiel, shtick, schmuck, schnapps, Shprintzen's). /ʃw/ is found initially in the Hebrew loanword schwa. Before /r/ however, the native cluster is /ʃr/. The opposite cluster /sr/ is found in loanwords such as Sri Lanka, but this can be nativized by changing it to /ʃr/.
3. /skl/ occurs in the Greek loanword sclerosis; there is also /sfr/ (sphragistics).

Other onsets

Certain English onsets appear only in contractions: e.g., /zbl/ ('sblood), /zd/ (sdein), and /zw/ or /dzw/ (swounds or dswounds). Some, such as /pʃ/ (pshaw) or /fw/ (fwoosh), can occur in interjections. An archaic voiceless fricative plus nasal exists, /fn/ (fnese).

A few other onsets occur in further (anglicized) loan words, including /bw/ (bwana), /mw/ (moiré), /nw/ (noire), /pw/ (pueblo); /kv/ (kvetch), /ʃv/ (schvartze), /sθ/ (sthenics), /θl/ (thlipsis), /tv/ (Tver), /zl/ (zloty), and /zw/ (zwieback)

Some clusters of this type can be converted to regular English phonotactics by simplifying the cluster: e.g. /(d)z/ (dziggetai), /(h)r/ (Hrolf), /kr(w)/ (croissant), /(p)f/ (pfennig), /(f)θ/ (phthalic), /(t)s/ (tsunami), /vw/ (voilà).

Others can be substituted by native clusters differing only in voice: /sv ~ sf/ (svelte), /zb ~ sp/ (sbirro), /zgr ~ skr/ (sgraffito).

Nucleus

The following can occur as the nucleus:

• All vowel sounds
• /m/, /n/ and /l/ in certain situations (see below under word-level rules)
• /r/ in rhotic varieties of English (eg General American) in certain situations (see below under word-level rules)

 Coda

Most, and in theory all, of the following except those which end with /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ can be extended with /s/ or /z/ representing the morpheme -s/z-. Similarly most, and in theory all, of the following except those which end with /t/ or /d/ can be extended with /t/ or /d/ representing the morpheme -t/d-.

Wells (1990) argues that a variety of syllable codas are possible in English, even /ntr, ndr/ in words like entry /ˈɛntr.ɪ/ and sundry /ˈsʌndr.ɪ/, with /tr, dr/ being treated as affricates along the lines of /tʃ, dʒ/. He argues that the traditional assumption that pre-vocalic consonants form a syllable with the following vowel is due to the influence of languages like French and Latin, where syllable structure is CVC.CVC regardless of stress placement. Disregarding such contentious cases, which do not occur at the ends of words, the following sequences can occur as the coda:

The single consonant phonemes except /h/, /w/, /j/ and, in non-rhotic varieties, /r/
Lateral approximant + plosive or affricate: /lp/, /lb/, /lt/, /ld/, /ltʃ/, /ldʒ/, /lk/	help, bulb, belt, hold, belch, indulge, milk
In rhotic varieties, /r/ + plosive or affricate: /rp/, /rb/, /rt/, /rd/, /rtʃ/, /rdʒ/, /rk/, /rɡ/	harp, orb, fort, beard, arch, large, mark, morgue
Lateral approximant + fricative: /lf/, /lv/, /lθ/, /ls/, /lʃ/	golf, solve, wealth, else, Welsh
In rhotic varieties, /r/ + fricative: /rf/, /rv/, /rθ/, /rs/, /rʃ/	dwarf, carve, north, force, marsh
Lateral approximant + nasal: /lm/, /ln/	film, kiln
In rhotic varieties, /r/ + nasal or lateral: /rm/, /rn/, /rl/	arm, born, snarl
Nasal + homorganic plosive or affricate: /mp/, /nt/, /nd/, /ntʃ/, /ndʒ/, /ŋk/	jump, tent, end, lunch, lounge, pink
Nasal + fricative: /mf/, /mθ/ in non-rhotic varieties, /nθ/, /ns/, /nz/, /ŋθ/ in some varieties	triumph, warmth, month, prince, bronze, length
Voiceless fricative + voiceless plosive: /ft/, /sp/, /st/, /sk/	left, crisp, lost, ask
Two voiceless fricatives: /fθ/	fifth
Two voiceless plosives: /pt/, /kt/	opt, act
Plosive + voiceless fricative: /pθ/, /ps/, /tθ/, /ts/, /dθ/, /dz/, /ks/	depth, lapse, eighth, klutz, width, adze, box
Lateral approximant + two consonants: /lpt/, /lfθ/, /lts/, /lst/, /lkt/, /lks/	sculpt, twelfth, waltz, whilst, mulct, calx
In rhotic varieties, /r/ + two consonants: /rmθ/, /rpt/, /rps/, /rts/, /rst/, /rkt/	warmth, excerpt, corpse, quartz, horst, infarct
Nasal + homorganic plosive + plosive or fricative: /mpt/, /mps/, /ndθ/, /ŋkt/, /ŋks/, /ŋkθ/ in some varieties	prompt, glimpse, thousandth, distinct, jinx, length
Three obstruents: /ksθ/, /kst/	sixth, next

Note: For some speakers, a fricative before /θ/ is elided so that these never appear phonetically: /ˈfɪfθ/ becomes [ˈfɪθ], /ˈsiksθ/ becomes [ˈsikθ], /ˈtwelfθ/ becomes [ˈtwelθ].

Syllable-level rules

• Both the onset and the coda are optional
• /j/ at the end of an onset cluster (/pj/, /bj/, /tj/, /dj/, /kj/, /fj/, /vj/, /θj/, /sj/, /zj/, /hj/, /mj/, /nj/, /lj/, /spj/, /stj/, /skj/) must be followed by /uː/ or /ʊə/
• Long vowels and diphthongs are not found before /ŋ/ except for the mimetic word boing!^[16]
• /ʊ/ is rare in syllable-initial position^[17]
• Stop + /w/ before /uː, ʊ, ʌ, aʊ/ (all presently or historically /u(ː)/) are excluded^[18]
• Sequences of /s/ + C₁ + V̆ + C₁, where C₁ is a consonant other that /t/ and V̆ is a short vowel, are virtually nonexistent^[18]

 Word-level rules

• /ə/ does not occur in stressed syllables
• /ʒ/ does not occur in word-initial position in native English words although it can occur syllable-initial, e.g., luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊəriəs/
• /θj/ occurs in word-initial position in a few obscure words: thew, thurible, etc.; it is more likely to appear syllable initial, e.g. /ɛnˈθjuːz/
• /m/, /n/, /l/ and, in rhotic varieties, /r/ can be the syllable nucleus (ie a syllabic consonant) in an unstressed syllable following another consonant, especially /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/
• Certain short vowel sounds, called checked vowels, cannot occur without a coda in a single syllable word. In RP, the following short vowel sounds are checked: /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɒ/ and /ʌ/.

History of English pronunciation

Main article: Phonological history of the English language

Around the late 14th century, English began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift, in which

• the high long vowels [iː] and [uː] in words like price and mouth became diphthongized, first to [əɪ] and [əʊ] (where they remain today in some environments in some accents such as Canadian English) and later to their modern values [aɪ] and [aʊ]. This is not unique to English, as this also happened in Dutch (first shift only) and German (both shifts).

The other long vowels became higher:

• [eː] became [iː] (for example meet),
• [aː] became [eː] (later diphthongized to [eɪ], for example name),
• [oː] became [uː] (for example goose), and
• [ɔː] become [oː] (later diphthongized to [oʊ], for example bone).

Later developments complicate the picture: whereas in Geoffrey Chaucer's time food, good, and blood all had the vowel [oː] and in William Shakespeare's time they all had the vowel [uː], in modern pronunciation good has shortened its vowel to [ʊ] and blood has shortened and lowered its vowel to [ʌ] in most accents. In Shakespeare's day (late 16th-early 17th century), many rhymes were possible that no longer hold today. For example, in his play The Taming of the Shrew, shrew rhymed with woe.^[19]

 æ-tensing

æ-tensing is a phenomenon found in many varieties of American English by which the vowel /æ/ has a longer, higher, and usually diphthongal pronunciation in some environments, usually to something like [eə]. Some American accents, for example that of New York City or Philadelphia, make a marginal phonemic distinction between /æ/ and /eə/ although the two occur largely in mutually exclusive environments.

Bad-lad split

The bad-lad split refers to the situation in some varieties of southern English English and Australian English, where a long phoneme /æː/ in words like bad contrasts with a short /æ/ in words like lad.

Cot-caught merger

The cot-caught merger is a sound change by which the vowel of words like cot, rock, and doll (/ɒ/ in New England, /ɑː/ elsewhere) is pronounced the same as the vowel of words like caught, talk, and tall (/ɔ/). This merger is widespread in North American English, being found in approximately 40% of American speakers and virtually all Canadian speakers.

Father-bother merger

The father-bother merger is the pronunciation of the short O /ɒ/ in words such as "bother" identically to the broad A /ɑː/ of words such as "father", nearly universal in all of the United States and Canada save New England and the Maritime provinces; many American dictionaries use the same symbol for these vowels in pronunciation guides.

Old English morphology

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The morphology of the Old English language is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. As an old Germanic language, Old English's morphological system is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections theorized to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including characteristically Germanic constructions such as umlaut.

Among living languages, Old English morphology most closely resembles that of modern Icelandic, which is among the most conservative of the Germanic languages; to a lesser extent, the Old English inflectional system is similar to that of modern High German.

Contents [hide] 1 Verbs 1.1 Strong verbs 1.2 Weak verbs 1.3 Preterite-present verbs 1.4 Anomalous verbs 2 Nouns 3 Pronouns 4 Prepositions 5 References 6 See also

Verbs

Verbs in Old English are divided into strong or weak verbs. Strong verbs indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel, while weak verbs indicate tense by the addition of an ending.

Strong verbs

Further information: Germanic strong verb

Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation known as ablaut. In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English, for example sing, sang, sung is a strong verb, as are swim, swam, swum and choose, chose, chosen. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes. Learning these is often a challenge for students of the language, though English speakers may see connections between the old verb classes and their modern forms.

The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:

1. ī + 1 consonant.
2. ēo or ū + 1 consonant.
3. Originally e + 2 consonants (This was no longer the case by the time of written Old English).
4. e + 1 consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb brecan 'to break').
5. e + 1 consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).
6. a + 1 consonant.
7. No specific rule — first and second have identical stems (ē or ēo), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.

Stem Changes in Strong Verbs
Class	Infinitive	First Preterite	Second Preterite	Past Participle
I	ī	ā	i	i
II	ēo or ū	ēa	u	o
III	see table below
IV	e	æ	ǣ	o
V	e	æ	ǣ	e
VI	a	ō	ō	a
VII	—	ē or ēo	ē or ēo	—

The first preterite stem is used in the preterite tense, for the first and third persons singular. The second preterite stem is used for second person singular, and all persons in the plural (as well as the preterite subjunctive). Strong verbs also exhibit i-mutation of the stem in the second and third persons singular in the present tense.

The third class went through so many sound changes that it was barely recognisable as a single class. The first was a process called 'breaking'. Before , and + another consonant, <æ> turned into , and to . Also, before + another consonant, the same happened to <æ>, but remained unchanged (except before combination ).

The second sound-change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds , , and . These turned anteceding and <æ> to and , respectively.

The third sound change turned to , <æ> to , and to before nasals.

Altogether, this split the third class into five sub-classes:

1. e + two consonants (apart from clusters beginning with l).
2. eo + r or h + another consonant.
3. e + l + another consonant.
4. g, c, or sc + ie + two consonants.
5. i + nasal + another consonant.

Stem Changes in Class III
Sub-class	Infinitive	First Preterite	Second Preterite	Past Participle
a	e	æ	u	o
b	eo	ea	u	o
c	e	ea	u	o
d	ie	ea	u	o
e	i	a	u	u

Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences being in the stem vowel. Thus stelan 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation paradigm.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'steal'
Infinitives		stelan
		tō stelanne
Present Indicative
	ic	stele
	þū	stilst
	hē/hit/hēo	stilð
	wē/gē/hīe	stelaþ
Past Indicative	ic	stæl
	þū	stæle
	hē/hit/hēo	stæl
	wē/gē/hīe	stælon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stele
	wē/gē/hīe	stelen
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stǣle
	wē/gē/hīe	stǣlen
Imperative	Singular	stel
	Plural	stelaþ
Present Participle		stelende
Past Participle		stole

Weak verbs

Further information: Germanic weak verb

Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are love, loved or look, looked.

Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today, most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak ending to the foreign bases.

The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1,200 years. Some verbs that were originally strong (for example help, holp, holpen) have become weak by analogy; most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns (for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally, conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb through the process of analogy, such as sneak (originally only a noun), where snuck is an analogical formation rather than a survival from Old English).

There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained below.

Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in certain forms. With verbs in this appears as or , where and are pronounced [j]. Geminated appears as , and that of appears as . Class one verbs may receive an epenthetic vowel before endings beginning in a consonant.

Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have or , which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as or .

In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Swebban 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. Hǣlan 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian 'to journey' is a class-two verb.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'put to sleep'	'heal'	'journey'
Infinitives		swebban	hǣlan	sīðian
		tō swebbanne	tō hǣlanne	tō sīðianne
Present Indicative
	ic	swebbe	hǣle	sīðie
	þū	swefest	hǣlst	sīðast
	hē/hit/hēo	swefeþ	hǣlþ	sīðað
	wē/gē/hīe	swebbaþ	hǣlaþ	sīðiað
Past Indicative	ic	swefede	hǣlde	sīðode
	þū	swefedest	hǣldest	sīðodest
	hē/hit/hēo	swefede	hǣle	sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefedon	hǣlon	sīðodon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swebbe	hǣle	sīðie
	wē/gē/hīe	swebben	hǣlen	sīðien
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swefede	hǣlde	sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefeden	hǣlden	sīðoden
Imperative	Singular	swefe	hǣl	sīða
	Plural	swebbaþ	hǣlaþ	sīðiað
Present Participle		swefende	hǣlende	sīðiende
Past Participle		swefed	hǣled	sīðod

During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: habban 'have', libban 'live', secgan 'say', and hycgan 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'have'	'live'	'say'	'think'
Infinitive		habban	libban, lifgan	secgan	hycgan
Present Indicative
	ic	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
	þū	hæfst, hafast	lifast, leofast	segst, sagast	hygst, hogast
	hē/hit/hēo	hæfð, hafað	lifað, leofað	segð, sagað	hyg(e)d, hogað
	wē/gē/hīe	habbaþ	libbað	secgaþ	hycgað
Past Indicative	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Imperative	Singular	hafa	leofa	sæge, saga	hyge, hoga
	Plural	habbaþ	libbaþ, lifgaþ	secgaþ	hycgaþ
Present Participle		hæbbende	libbende, lifgende	secgende	hycgende
Past Participle		gehæfd	gelifd	gesægd	gehogod

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which have a present tense in the form of a strong preterite and a past tense like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from the subjunctive or optative use of preterite forms to refer to present or future time. For example, witan, "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE wise "manner, mode, appearance"; Latin videre "to see" from the same root). The present singular is formed from the original singular preterite stem and the present plural from the original plural preterite stem. As a result of this history, the first-person singular and third-person singular are the same in the present.

Few preterite present appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in all forms.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'know, know how to, can'	'be able to, may'	'be obliged to, shall'	'know, wit'	'own, owe'	'avail, dow'	'dare'	'remember'	'need'	'be able to, be obliged to, mote
Infinitives		cunnan	magan	sculan	witan	āgan	dugan	durran	munan		mōtan
Present Indicative
	ic	cann	mæg	sceal	wāt	āh	deah	dearr	man	þearf	mōt
	þū	canst	meaht	scealt	wāst	āhst		dearst	manst	þearft	mōst
	hē/hit/hēo	cann	mæg	sceal	wāt	āh	deah	dearr	man	þearf	mōt
	wē/gē/hīe	cunnon	magon	sculon	witon	āgon	dugon	durron	munon	þurfon	mōton
Past Indicative
	ic	cūðe	meahte	sceolde	wisse, wiste	āhte	dohte	dorst	munde	þorfte	mōste
	þū	cūðest	meahtest	sceoldest	wissest, wistest	āhte	dohte	dorst	munde	þorfte	mōste
	hē/hit/hēo	cūðe	meahte	sceolde	wisse, wiste	āhte	dohte	dorst	munde	þorfte	mōste
	wē/gē/hīe	cūðon	meahton	sceoldon	wisson, wiston
Present Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	cunne	mæge	scule	wite	āge	dyge, duge	durre	myne, mune	þyrfe, þurfe	mōte
	wē/gē/hīe	cunnen	mægen	sculen	witaþ
Past Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	cūðe	meahte	sceolde	wisse, wiste
	wē/gē/hīe	cūðen	meahten	sceolden

Anomalous verbs

Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "will", "do", "go" and "be". These four have their own conjugation schemes which differ significantly from all the other classes of verb. This is not especially unusual: "will", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences in which they are used. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important items of vocabulary than with rarely-used ones.

Dōn 'to do', gān 'to go', and willan 'will' are conjugated alike:

Conjugation	Pronoun	'do'	'go'	'will'
Infinitive	–	dōn	gān	willan
Present Indicative
	ic	dō	gā	wille
	þū	dēst	gǣst	wilt
	hē/hit/hēo	dēð	gǣð	wile
	wē/gē/hīe	dōð	gāð	willað
Past Indicative
	ic/hē/hit/hēo	dyde	ēode	wolde
	þū	dydest	ēodest	woldest
	wē/gē/hīe	dydon	ēodon	woldon
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	dō	gā	wille
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	dyde	ēode	wolde
Present Participle		dōnde	–	willende
Past Participle		gedōn	gegān	–

The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:

Conjugation	Pronoun	sindon	bēon	wesan
Infinitive	–	sindon	bēon	wesan
Present Indicative
	ic	eom	bēo	wese
	þū	eart	bist	wesst
	hē/hit/hēo	is	bið	wes(t)
	wē/gē/hīe	sind(on)	bēoð	wesað
Past Indicative
	ic	–	–	wæs
	þū	–	–	wǣre
	hē/hit/hēo	–	–	wæs
	wē/gē/hīe	–	–	wǣron
Present Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	sīe	bēo	wese
	wē/gē/hīe	sīen	bēon	wesen
Past Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	–	–	wǣre
	wē/gē/hīe	–	–	wǣren
Imperative
	(singular)	–	bēo	wes
	(plural)	–	bēoð	wesað
Present Participle		–	bēonde	wesende
Past Participle		–	gebēon	–

The present forms of wesan are almost never used. Therefore, wesan is used as the past, imperative, and present participle versions of sindon, and does not have a separate meaning. The bēon forms are usually used in reference to future actions. Only the present forms of bēon contrast with the present forms of sindon/wesan in that bēon tends to be used to refer to eternal or permanent truths, while sindon/wesan is used more commonly to refer to temporary or subjective facts. This semantic distinction was lost as Old English developed into modern English, so that the modern verb 'to be' is a single verb which takes its present indicative forms from sindon, its past indicative forms from wesan, its present subjunctive forms from bēon, its past subjunctive forms from wesan, and its imperative and participle forms from bēon.

Nouns

Main article: Old English declension

Old English nouns were declined – that is, the ending of the noun changed to reflect its function in the sentence. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.

• The nominative case indicated the subject of the sentence, for example se cyning means 'the king'. It was also used for direct address. Adjectives in the predicate (qualifying a noun on the other side of 'to be') were also in the nominative.
• The accusative indicated the direct object of the sentence, for example Æþelbald lufode þone cyning means "Æþelbald loved the king", where Æþelbald is the subject and the king is the object. Already the accusative had begun to merge with the nominative; it was never distinguished in the plural, or in a neuter noun.
• The genitive case indicated possession, for example the þæs cyninges scip is "the ship of the king" or "the king's ship". It also indicated partitive nouns.
• The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for example hringas þæm cyninge means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative.
• The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for example lifde sweorde, "he lived by the sword", where sweorde is the instrumental form of sweord. During the Old English period, the instrumental was falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental.

There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, hring 'one ring') or plural (for example, hringas 'many rings').

Nouns are also categorised by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural does not distinguish between genders.

Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.

Pronouns

Main article: Old English pronouns

Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but remained in use throughout the period.

First Person
Case	Singular	Plural	Dual
Nominative	ic, īc	wē	wit
Accusative	mec, mē	ūsic, ūs	uncit, unc
Genitive	mīn	ūre	uncer
Dative	mē	ūs	unc

Second Person
Case	Singular	Plural	Dual
Nominative	þū	gē	git
Accusative	þēc, þē	ēowic, ēow	incit, inc
Genitive	þīn	ēower	incer
Dative	þē	ēow	inc

Third Person
Case	Singular			Plural
	Masc.	Neut.	Fem.
Nominative	hē	hit	hēo	hiē m., hēo f.
Accusative	hine	hit	hīe	hiē m., hīo f.
Genitive	his	his	hire	hiera m., heora f.
Dative	him	him	hire	him

Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ēower became "your", ūre became "our", mīn became "mine".

Prepositions

Further information: Old English language (list of prepositions)

Prepositions (like Modern English words by, for, and with) often follow the word which they govern, in which case they are called postpositions. Also, so that the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence, even appended to the verb. e.g. "Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum meodo setla of teoh" means "Scyld took mead settles of (from) enemy threats." The infinitive is not declined.

References

• Moore, Samuel, and Thomas A. Knott. The Elements of Old English. 1919. Ed. James R. Hulbert. 10th ed. Ann Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Co., 1958.

worksheet for english morphology

WORKSHEETS

MORPHOLOGY: INTRODUCTION

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Below are some terms related to English morphology. Consult a recent dictionary for any whose meaning is not clear to you and define them.

morpheme, free morpheme, bound morpheme (form), allomorph, base morpheme, affix, inflectional affix, derivational affix, prefix, suffix, compound (compounding)

Divide the following words into morphemes by writing them with dashes at the morpheme boundaries. For examples: cat-s, re-view, power-point.

                applejack              Wisconsin                        houseboat              uniform                          playback               transplant                       joyous                 generative                       poisonous              coolness                         grievous               codify                           unsightly              microwave                        sees                   joyless                          don't                  reception                  

The word reactivation has five morphemes in it (one free and four bound). Analyse it step by step:

Derivational affixes may be either prefixes or suffixes. Most derivational prefixes simply change the meaning of the word to which they are attached (for example, unbelievable and desensitize). Derivational suffixes normally change the part-of-speech category and may also change the meaning of the word to which they are attached. Notice how derivational suffixes change the part-of-speech category and the meaning in the following words.

a. generative, b. coolness, c. codify, d. joyless