Systematic patterning in phonologically-motivated orthographic variation∗

Social media features a wide range of nonstandard 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. (150 words)