Variation and change in the sociophonetic variable <i>ing</i> in format ties

Abstract Format ties, “partial repetitions of prior talk” ( Goodwin &amp; 1987 , p. 207), are interesting from an interactional perspective with respect to their functions relating to, for example, (dis-) agreement/alignment or humour, and scholars Language Variation Change because they offer uniquely comparable phonological contexts in naturalistic speech. The present paper investigates the distribution sociolinguistic variable ing format ties a set dyadic interviews six speakers North-East England who were recorded two three times throughout twenties – those career-building years during which we often see change predominant use alveolar variant (“in’”) velar (“ing”). analysis offers possible stylistic explanations community-level stability speaker-level variation by focusing on tie. It shows that highly frequent thus less marked tends occur aligning contexts, while few cases moments where disalign some level. This argument contributes work combining variationist endeavours, particular .