Re: THEORY: free variation [was: Re: [OT] Re: Conlangea Dreaming]

Nik Taylor wrote:

>Marcus Smith wrote:
> > Then
> > there's the famous [tometo] vs. [tomato] song, extendable to [poteto] vs.
> > [potato].
>
>Isn't it /p@teto/ vs. /p@tAto/?  And then there's always /t@peto/.  ;-)
>(Jocular varient used by some people I know)
Another form of free variation.  I can say [poteto] or [p@teto]. No big
difference.

>But anyway, the classic example is rhoticism in many dialects, where the
>*same* speakers will say both /fO/ and /fOr/ (or is the vowel /o/?).
>That's free variation.  The potato example is simply a dialectal
>variation.  Most individuals use one or the other.
Hate to disagree here. I use both. In fact, taking your alternative
pronunciations into account, I use all four interchangably.  For me the
examples I used are in completely free variation.




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Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
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