Abstract
Suppletion is typically conceived of in diachronic terms as a discontinuous phenomenon, by which two or more originally distinct lexical items come to share slots in a single paradigm. However, it has long been known that regular sound change acting undisturbed over long periods of time can in fact give rise to what in synchronic terms must be considered suppletive stem relationships.
It is proposed, on the basis of examples from ancient and modern Indo-European languages, that instances of suppletion with a morphosyntactically unmotivated distribution are more likely to have arisen by the accretion of sound change than those which neatly contrast morphosyntactic categories such as singular vs. plural, which typically result from merger of two or more lexemes. Supporting this view is the phonological origin of several well-known cases of morphomic alternations, which can serve as a gateway for the introduction of suppletive stems.
However, this hypothesis is to be understood only as a general tendency, since the distribution of stems in phonological suppletion may be altered by irregular morphological developments.