My Idiolect

I guess, in comparison to some girls, I have a low pitch voice with a soft ‘farmers’ accent due to living in the South West, I’d hope I don’t sound Bristolian though because that often means mispronunciation, which my Mum has always discouraged. Some of my mates say I ‘speak posh’, I suppose this is because I try to pronounce fully, not drop the ‘t’s like some of them do. I also avoid text talk in speech; LOL and YOLO, for example, just sound weird when said aloud, at least I think so anyway. I’m not saying I’m a social outcast or anything, when it comes to language, I do use abbreviations and slang but just avoid those acronyms in speech.

My speech and tone also changes depending on the audience. For example, with my mates I’ll use more slang but with my parents or teachers I’ll use more extensive vocabulary, then with younger children my pitch often rises to create excitement and I may simplify my language.

As a filler mid-sentence, when I’m thinking, I use ‘umm’ and ‘hmm’ but when the conversation reaches a break I often use words such as, ‘so’, ‘yeah’ or ‘right’.

My most frequently used swear word is probably ‘shit’ or ‘crap’ but I do try to avoid swearing because I help with brownie units and I find swearing becomes a habit too easily and you obviously can’t be using that language around their age group, or at work with customers, or generally in most scenarios. It is only really acceptable with my friends in casual conversation.  

I tend to start conversation with ‘hey’ and end with ‘laters’ with my mates and my parents, though my Mum always mimics my ‘hey’ because I apparently drag out the ‘e’. At work though, I answer the phone with ‘hello’ and greet customers in that manor generally.

When I speak I tend to make gestures, I think I got this from my Dad when I was young because he is pretty animated when speaking, also when working with children or when communicating with my employers, who are Chinese and can struggle with English, I tend to exaggerate my gestures to aid communication.

During a conversation I commonly nod along, smile, raise my eye brows or maybe frown. According to my sister, I also hold eye contact too long during a conversation. I may also chip in little comments like ‘fair enough’, ‘I get you’, ‘I know what you mean’ or ‘really’ and ‘oh my god’, this is often with my friends, with adults its more likely ‘yes’, ‘right’, ‘ok’ and ‘sure’.