allealle

Allealle is a term used in linguistic typology to denote a reduplication pattern in which a base morpheme is concatenated with a second copy that is nearly identical but altered by a regular phonological rule. The resulting form preserves the overall repetition while introducing a systematic variation, a structure that can be observed in discussions of constructed languages and theoretical models of morphophonology.

Origin and scope: The word allealle appears to be a coinage intended to reflect the dual-copy nature of the pattern, combining the idea of repeating units with the affix-like sense of a second altered copy. It is primarily a theoretical or pedagogical construct rather than a widely attested natural-language phenomenon.

Features and applications: Allealle patterns typically show two steps: a first, exact copy of the base morpheme, and a second copy that undergoes a fixed phonological change, such as a vowel shift or consonant adjustment. This yields forms that are visually and auditorily similar but perceptibly distinct, allowing researchers to illustrate morphophonemic rules and reduplication typology. The concept is commonly discussed in the context of conlangs, linguistic typology exercises, and formal automata models.

Example: With a base morpheme ta, full allealle would produce tata, while a vowel-alternating variant could yield tate, depending on the specific rule applied to the second copy. These variants demonstrate how a single pattern can encode different grammatical or semantic functions in hypothetical systems.

See also: reduplication, morphophonology, conlangs, phonology, typology.