Aspects of Morphophonology in Igbo Language

Abstract

Morphophonology in Igbo is concerned with the processes which result to different phonological realizations of allomorphs of morphemes or the processes in which the phonemic representation of morphemes are realized in different environments. This paper is a study of aspects of morphophonology, and subsequently, the morphophonemic processes existent in the Igbo language. The purpose of this paper is to describe the morphophonological processes realized in Igbo language. The data for this study are collected through verbal interactions with native speakers and intuition of the researchers. The data are qualitatively analyzed using the descriptive method. From the data, it is observed that there are morphophonemic processes in Igbo language. The morphophonemic processes described are: ‘negative suffixation -GHI which is realized as (ghi/ghị) based on vowel harmony rule’; This depicts two groups of Igbo vowels (+ATR/-ATR). Vowels are selected from one group in forming Igbo words. It is either you select from one group or the other because selecting haphazardly will result to ungrammaticality and unacceptability. The three operating tones in Igbo language, high (ˊ), low (ˋ), and down-step (-) tones are distinctive and can result to different meanings from forms that appear similar. The past tense rV marker obeys the vowel harmony rule. In an environment where the main verb is from +ATR group, the rV follows the group vice versa.