No two productions of the same linguistic object are the same. This is true for every linguistic object that can be measured, from sounds, to syllables, to words, to word sequences, to larger stretches of spoken language, even in cases where two instances of an object are perceived by a listener to be identical. This is known as variable speech production. [Page 2028]More specifically, within-speaker variability refers to the differences between the productions of what is ostensibly the same linguistic object by a single speaker. This includes variability in articulatory and acoustic detail of multiple productions that would generally be perceived as having the same intended pronunciation, such as multiple instances of the word government or the vowel /æ/.

This entry does not discuss cases of ...