Allomorphs are morphs which belong to the same morpheme and variants of a morpheme that may be phonologically or morphologically conditioned.

• A. Allophones
• B. Morphemes
• C. Phonemes
• D. Allomorphs

Answer: (D)

Allomorphs are the different surface forms a single morpheme can take. They share the same meaning and grammatical function, but their pronunciation (and sometimes spelling) changes depending on phonological or morphophonemic context. For example, the plural marker in English has three allomorphs: [s] after voiceless consonants as in cats, [z] after voiced consonants as in dogs, and [ɪz] after sibilant sounds as in horses. Similarly, the past tense marker -ed is pronounced as [t], [d], or [ɪd] depending on the final sound of the verb. These variants are conditioned by surrounding sounds or by morphophonemic factors, yet they all realize the same morpheme and convey the same grammatical meaning. This distinguishes allomorphs from allophones, which are context-dependent pronunciations of a single phoneme, not tied to a particular morpheme.