polyphone

Polyphone is a term used in linguistics to describe a single written form that can be pronounced in more than one way, typically depending on the word’s meaning, grammatical function, or context. In practice, polyphone is closely related to, but not identical with, homographs or heteronyms, which describe spellings that correspond to different pronunciations in different languages or contexts. Polyphonic readings are common in logographic writing systems, including Chinese, where a single character may have two or more pronunciations.

Chinese linguistics often classifies such characters as 多音字 (duōyīn zì). The correct pronunciation is determined by context, including the character’s role in the word, its meaning, and nearby characters. Examples often cited include 行 (xíng vs háng), 重 (zhòng vs chóng), and 了 (le vs liǎo). There are thousands of polyphonic characters in frequent use, especially in names, compounds, and historical texts.

Outside linguistics, Polyphone is also the name of a cross-platform, free software editor for SoundFont (.sf2) files. It lets users create, modify, and organize instrument samples, assign samples to MIDI notes, and export libraries for digital audio workstations and synthesizers.

See also: polyphony, heteronyms, homographs.