Multiple sociolinguistic studies of the same linguistic variable in communities around the world have often revealed similar linguistic constraints on variation with relatively consistent social pat- terning (Labov 1972). Intrinsic to nearly all of these studies of the patterns of variation in language within a community has been a consistent methodological framework and analysis protocol that each researcher examining the same variable follows. That is, once a method for examining linguistic variation for a particular variable is identified, it is adopted, and changes to the method are typically only the result of newly emergent data that cannot "fit" into or cannot be handled by the analysis framework we have (Blake 1997). However, with new methods for analysis and interdisciplinary perspectives consistently influencing sociolinguistic research, multiple examinations of the same variable, utilizing different communities representing a broad variety and novel meth- odological approaches to the analysis of a linguistic variable, provide a new depth to language change research.
To this end, this paper examines a highly salient variable in Newfoundland English, the interdental fricative, through the lens of four separate sociolinguistic studies. Each study looks at the same variable, some taking more traditional methodological approaches while others develop and adapt new methodologies, with an eye to presenting a view of the social meaning of an iconic linguistic variable in Newfoundland. While the findings of the studies are not all the same, with nuanced differences emerging, the different views of the variables and more importantly the social findings of the studies highlight the importance of multiple investigations of the same variable in a language variety and the role that identity plays in language variation.