My Linguistic Fingerprint

Considering I was born and raised in Bristol, people would assume I would speak like an award winning farmer with hundreds of acres. However this is not the case, well maybe a little bit! My personal linguistic fingerprint is dependent on many factors such as family,  friends and the environment I live. With all of these factors combined this creates my unique linguistic fingerprint which is special to me. A linguistic fingerprint is the distinctive way people communicate.

My personal linguistic quirks include replacing the 'th' sound in the word Bath to the sound 'ff'. So when spoken out loud it sounds like 'Baff'. This feature of my dialect was introduced to me from my environment and my friends, so therefore this feature is giving me the stereotypical Bristolian dialect which is often associated with the area.  Having a parent that is from South Wales has also influenced my linguistic fingerprint, as my father still speaks with a typical Welsh accent. Some linguistic  traits from my father which I attained over the years include saying 'Where to?' and 'Now after'. Of course these phrases don't make grammatical sense, yet they still appear in my dialect and when I speak. This just shows that its not only the environment I'm in, that impacts my linguistic fingerprint but my family as well.

However, my personal linguistic fingerprint varies time to time dependent on I am doing or who I am  speaking to. Often I changed my dialect whilst talking on the phone, my accent is often changed to a more formal tone, where I pronounce words properly. Personally, I speak with a more formal tone on the phone because it allows the person on the other end to hear me properly but it also gives me a sense of sophistication. Despite this I am properly not fooling anyone. This is not the only time I tend to change or alter my dialect, I often speak more formal and pronounced when I meet new people or in a shop when they ask you a question. I feel it makes me look more polite. Nevertheless, there is only so long I can put on a false persona, before the 'ff' and 'likes' start to creep back in.

I guess this just shows how imprinted my linguistic fingerprint is in me, and even if I would like to alter it, it is quite impossible, ma babbeeeerrrrrr!