RESEARCH ON ENGLISH PHONOLOGY IN NEW YORK CITY IS DESCRIBED. CURRENT LINGUISTIC THEORY IS CONSIDERED UNABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR MASSIVE "FREE VARIATION" IN THE PHONOLOGY OF THE SPEECH OF THAT AREA. ISOLATED WERE PHONOLOGICAL VARIABLES WHICH ARE ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIAL, STYLISTIC, ETHNIC, AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN NEW YORK CITY. QUANTITATIVE INDEXES WERE CONSTRUCTED AND INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES DEVISED TO ISOLATE CONTEXTUAL STYLES. THE FINDINGS SHOW THAT THE SPEECH OF NEW YORKERS IS HIGHLY DETERMINED BY CONTEXT AND SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS. THE RESEARCH PERMITTED ESTABLISHMENT OF A STRUCTURAL UNIT, THE LINGUISTIC VARIABLE, WHICH IS A CLASS OF VARIANTS SUCH AS MORPHS OR PHONES, WHICH IS ORDERED ALONG A CONTINUOUS DIMENSION, AND WHOSE POSITION IS DETERMINED BY AN INDEPENDENT LINGUISTIC OR EXTRALINGUISTIC VARIABLE. THE THEORETICAL CONSEQUENCE OF INTRODUCING THIS CONSTRUCT IS THE ENLARGEMENT OF LINGUISTIC THEORY. THE AUTHOR SUGGESTS THE ADDITION OF THE LINGUISTIC VARIABLE TO THE REPERTORY