The plural morpheme.
The plural morpheme is one of the few morphemes which are prefixing. The morpheme is ‘t’
Some words and their plurals
| Sno | Word | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | iE | tiE | boats |
| 2 | EA | tEA | fishes |
| 3 | ark | tark | nets |
| 4 | Oz | tOz | circles, whirlpools |
The above are examples where a vowel follows the plural morpheme. But there are cases where the following sound is not a vowel but a consonant in such case, the plural morpheme has an allomorph, ‘ta’ the ‘a’ sound is addedfor phonological convinence.
Cases with consonants
| Sno | Word | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ti | tati | men |
| 2 | tin | tatin | women |
| 3 | gAz | tagAz | waves |
| 4 | sAr | tasAr | spears |
| 5 | dAgu | tadAgu | birds |
| 6 | rIs | tarIs | flower buds |
| 7 | kai | takai | clear water fishes |
| 8 | mut | tamut | winds |
| 9 | fU | tafU | airs |
| 10 | kre | takre | mouths |
With words starting with ‘l’ the plural changes its form, it is ‘k’.
‘t’ to ‘k’ change
The ‘k’ change is not an allomorph. It is a phonological change of ‘t’ to ‘k’ where ever ‘l’ follows not just in plurals.
| Sno | Word | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | lEvi | klEvi | eyes |