1192: Morphophonologically Illogical Mar 15, 2018
With strong verbs (i.e. verbs that conjugate internally) the vowels change from a high or mid vowel like [i] or [e] to a lower vowel like [a] (either mid or low), or occasionally the vowels move from front to back for present and past tense respectively. The height or lowness is determined by where the tongue is in the mouth (see the diagram below). This can be seen with 'sing' in the present tense becoming 'sang' in the perfect tense. Moreover, this can be seen with truly irregular verbs (unlike 'sing', 'sang', 'sung' which is regular) such as 'to be'. With the 3rd person singular it appears as 'is' in the present tense with a high vowel, and 'was' in the imperfect tense with the back vowel /ʊ/. However, 'are' is present tense and has a low vowel, but the past tense form 'were' has a mid vowel, which is higher. Does that mean the rule is imperfect (not referring to the grammar here)?—not really, because this is an irregular verb, and not only does it not follow standard morphological rules. Becasue there is not an apparent structure thereto, even when the morphology relates to phonology as it does with strong verbs, this does not mean that morphophonological conventions correct for this illogicality.
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