linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

, free variation 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. Sociolinguists argue that describing such variation as "free" is very often a misnomer, since variation between linguistic forms is usually constrained probabilistically by a range of systematic social and linguistic factors, not unconstrained as the term "free variation" suggests. The term remains in use in studies focused primarily on language as systems (e.g. phonology, morphology, syntax), however, since " e fact that variation is 'free' does not imply that it is totally unpredictable, but only that no ''grammatical'' principles govern the distribution of variants."

Effects

When

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

s are in free variation, speakers are sometimes strongly aware of the fact (especially if such variation is noticeable only across a dialectal or sociolectal divide), and will note, for example, that ''tomato'' is pronounced differently in British and American English ( and respectively), or that ''either'' has two pronunciations that are distributed fairly randomly. However, only a very small proportion of English words show such variations. In the case of different realizations of the same phoneme, however, free variation is exceedingly common and, along with differing intonation patterns, variation in realization is the most important single feature in the characterization of regional accents. English's deep orthography and the language's wide variety of accents often cause confusion, even for native speakers, on how written words should be pronounced. That allows for a significant degree of free variation to occur in English.

English examples

Phonology

*The

rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including , in the Latin script and , in the Cyrillic script. The ...

is in a free variation between the alveolar approximant,

retroflex approximant The voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`. The IPA symbol is a turned lowercase l ...

, alveolar flap and alveolar trill, although all of these save for the first one are considered dialectal and rare. * Glottalization of

voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies ...

stops in word-final position: for example, the word ''stop'' may be pronounced with a plain unaspirated , , or with a glottalized , , also called a glottal stop or glottal plosive.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation of many English words may vary depending on the dialect and the speaker. Although individual speakers may prefer one or the other pronunciation and one may be more common in some

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

s than others, many forms can often be encountered within a single dialect and sometimes even within a single

idiolect Idiolect is an individual's unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people ...

. *In some words, some speakers might use a different vowel than the others. This includes words like: **''economics'', which may pronounced with or in the first syllable, or ''data'', which can be pronounced as either or .; **''either'' and ''neither'', in which "ei" can be pronounced as either or , even by the same speaker.; **some loanwords, especially of

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

origin, such as ''route'', which can be pronounced as either (a more anglicized pronunciation) or (a pronunciation more akin to French); **some proper names, especially geographic state names such as ''Colorado,'' which can be pronounced as either or . *Pronouncing a word with a different consonant or using a completely different pronunciation is also sometimes found in English. This can be found in words like: **''schedule'', which may be pronounced either with the consonant cluster or the sound. The former is more common in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

, the latter in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadl ...

; with /sk/ and /ʃ/ phonemically distinct in both varieties (e.g. ''scout''/''shout'', ''skin''/''shin''), identical spelling obscures the fact that different phonological structures underlie the phonetic contrast; **some loanwords like ''guillotine'' which can be pronounced with either or .

Grammar

*Years from 2010 onwards can be expressed in English as either, e.g., ''two thousand ten'' or ''twenty ten''.

References