Systematic patterning in phonologically‐motivated orthographic variation

Bibliographic Data

ID7861433
AuthorsJacob Eisenstein (Georgia Institute of Technology U.S.A, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume19
Issue2
Pages161-188
Publication date2015-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociolinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-6441 • E-ISSN: 1467-9841
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/josl.12119
OpenAlexW1529864641
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited57

Social media features a wide range of non‐standard spellings, many of which appear inspired by phonological variation. However, the nature of the connection between variation across the spoken and written modalities remains poorly understood. Are phonological variables transferred to writing on the level of graphemes, or is the larger system of contextual patterning also transferred? This paper considers orthographic coda deletions corresponding to the phonological variables of (ing) and (t,d). In both cases, orthography mirrors speech: reduction of the ‐ing suffix depends on the word's syntactic category, and reduction of the ‐t,‐d suffix depends on the succeeding phonological context. These spellings are more frequently used in informal conversational contexts, and in areas with high proportions of African Americans, again mirroring the patterning of the associated phonological variables. This suggests a deep connection between variation in the two modalities, necessitating a new account of the production of cross‐modal variation

Context (archaeology · Linguistics · Orthography · Phonology · Reading (process · Suffix · Variation (astronomy · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology

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