| phase | process | example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | ||
| 1 | Root vowel is fronted by phonological rule (metaphony = harmony with frontness of suffix vowel). | gast | gesti |
| guest | guests | ||
| 2 | Root vowel metaphony is taken to be conditioned by whatever the function of the suffix is (here: plural). | ||
| 3 | Coding of the grammatical function in question is reanalyzed as discontinuous (i.e. root vowel metaphony plus suffix). | Gast | Gäste |
| guest | guests | ||
| 4 | The suffix in question is lost, but the root vowel remains front. Whatever the grammatical information conveyed by the suffix was (here: plural), thereby becomes a grammatical feature conveyed by the front vowel of the root (i.e. metaphony now codes pluralization) | Vater | Väter |
| father | fathers | ||