Define morphophonemic alteration with examples?

Morphophonemic alteration refers to changes in the pronunciation or spelling of a word that occur when it undergoes morphological changes, such as inflection or derivation. These alterations can involve changes in the sounds of the word, as well as changes in the spelling.

Examples of morphophonemic alterations include:

1. Pluralization: The word "cat" changes to "cats" when pluralized, with a change in both pronunciation (the final sound changes from /t/ to /ts/) and spelling.

2. Verb tense changes: The verb "run" changes to "ran" in the past tense, with a change in both pronunciation (the vowel sound changes from /ʌ/ to /æ/) and spelling.

3. Derivation: The noun "nation" changes to the adjective "national" with a change in pronunciation (the stress shifts from the first syllable to the second) and spelling.

4. Compounding: The words "black" and "bird" combine to form "blackbird," with a change in pronunciation (the final /k/ sound of "black" is dropped) and spelling.

Overall, morphophonemic alterations are common in language and play a crucial role in forming different words and expressing various grammatical relationships.