Idiolect essay examples

Almost all speakers make use of several idiolects, depending on the circumstances of communication. For example, when family members talk to each other, their speech habits typically differ from those any one of them would use in, say, an interview with a prospective employer.

Whilst completing this project on spoken language, I discovered aspects of my own personal speech (also known as idiolect) and the variation between people's language due to their culture and environment. Living in Luton for sixteen years I have had many experiences which shapes my idiolect to what it is today.

In linguistics, idiolects fall under the study of linguistic variation, such as dialects and accents. In an article for Slate, author Gretchen McCulloch explained further how deep a person's idiolect goes and how people come up with their own take on their language.

For example, when family members talk to each other, their speech habits typically differ from those any one of them would use in, say, an interview with a prospective employer. The concept of idiolect refers to a very specific phenomenon—the speech variety, or linguistic system, used by a particular individual.