Free variation

Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers.^[1][2]

Examples

Examples from English include:

• glottalization of voiceless stops in word-final position: for example, the word stop may be pronounced with a plain unaspirated [p], [stɑp], or with a glottalized [pˀ], [stɑpˀ]
• the word economics may be pronounced with /i/ or /ɛ/ in the first syllable; although individual speakers may prefer one or the other, and although one may be more common in some dialects than others, both forms are encountered within a single dialect and sometimes even within a single idiolect
• the comparative of many disyllabic adjectives can be formed either with the word more or with the suffix -er, for example more stupid or stupider
• either, neither - "ei" can be pronounced as either /iː/ or /aɪ/^[3]
• loanwords, especially of French and Latin origin, can often have multiple different pronunciations, such as route, which can be pronounced as either /raʊt/ (a more Anglicized pronunciation) or /ru:t/ (a pronunciation more akin to French).
• data - can be pronounced as either /ˈdæ.tə/ or /ˈdeɪ.tə/^[4]
• Proper names, especially state names, can have multiple different pronunciations, such as Colorado, which can be pronounced as either /ˌkɑləˈrɑdoʊ/ and /ˌkɑləˈrædoʊ/

Further description

When phonemes are in free variation, speakers are sometimes strongly aware of the fact (especially where such variation is only visible across a dialectal or sociolectal divide), and will note, for example, that tomato is pronounced differently in British and American English (/təˈmɑːˌtəʊ/ and /təˈmeɪˌtoʊ/ respectively),^[5] or that either has two pronunciations which are fairly randomly distributed. However, only a very small proportion of English words show such variations. In the case of allophones, however, free variation is exceedingly common, and, along with differing intonation patterns, variation in allophony is the most important single feature in the characterization of regional accents.^[1]

English's deep orthography (with a wide variety of accents on top of it all) often proves to be a source of confusion of how written words should be pronounced for even native speakers. This allows for a significant degree of free variation to occur in English.^[6]

See also

References