My Language World

I find myself wondering about the language of the world. How there are so many dialects, sociolects, idiolects and more. I can only give you my personal experiences towards my own language and how there are so many factors towards language change and development.  My personal idiolect has a mix of Sociolects, cryptolects and non-standard English.  My language now was affected by social media and my upbringing. I rarely use slang words and Jargon words but in certain sociolects, I speak differently. This made me realize that my idiolect is affected by who I speak to and who I look up to. What I mean by this is when I was little, I always looked up to my dad (I still do) and I adopted some of his mannerisms. I think that upbringing is especially important in how someone speaks.

I always find myself fascinated by how people talk and also what the different reactions other people have towards certain accents. According to Stephan Heblich, Alfred Lameli and Gerhard Reiner, speaking in a certain idiolect reveals ones social and cultural identity. “This evokes stereotypes and social ratings”.  This stereotype is most commonly found in business. I was reading an article posted by Slate about the film industries bias: Does the tv/film you consume make you MORE or LESS biased towards others?. The article talks about the use of Standard English or the queens English,  in the film industry. It drives on to talk about how Standard English in movies can create a bias towards youngsters around the world. This shows a certain overt prestige towards people who talk this way.  Overt prestige is generally socially acknowledged as the ‘correct’ English and is highly valued by people who speak this specific social dialect. This relates to me because I LOVE watching movies. My family and I always find time after school or on the weekends to watch a film. I seem to have never noticed the aforementioned bias in shows until I watched this video.  I don’t think I was ever affected by this standard English bias but I believe that youngsters can unquestionably become influenced by this style of language.

My social group has had a major impact on my language. Of course, my language has significantly changed since I was a boy. When I was little my language was influenced contextually, for example, social groups and my families language. I was always using words that my parents used or what I heard my friends say. Now though, I socially use more in-jokes and I have noticed that I still use words that I adopt from other people. For many people, their language is more profoundly shaped by technology and neologism(new words). Personally, my language has not been severely impacted by technology or social media.  Now, however, I have noticed that because my friends use words that come from social media and the internet, I use many of the words that they use. So it’s a cycle that keeps on affecting the words that I use.

In my first paragraph, I talked shortly about how I was fascinated by the different reactions people have when talking to a stranger. I watched a skit on the daily motion about the stereotypes people make at first sight. This video was called “Phone Call” by Key and Peele. It was a thought-provoking video because I have noticed this stereotype somewhat in many movies and tv shows. But never had I noticed it in the real world.  However, now that I am aware of this, I notice that I do it almost all the time.  Not as extreme as Key and Peele’s skit but nevertheless just as alike. People may deny it but everyone has done it before. For example, an article on judgement called ‘Why is it impossible to not judge people?’ talked about how ” Judgments are expectations based on pre-programmed mindsets or scripts, and yes when it comes to race we call them stereotypes.” It presses on to talk about how it is impossible to not judge people before you even meet them. This is fascinating. It’s troubling to think that a human being judges another human being (usually negatively ) reflexively when they meet them. I won’t deny it, of course, but I do it often. Yet, you barely notice it.  This is called subconscious thought. So you subconsciously judge someone before you have met them.

To conclude, I think my language has been affected and is continuing to be affected by many factors. My social groups, family, upbringing, some technology and my experiences all have an influence on my speech. What factors affect your language? Why do you think this?