idiolect
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈɪdiəˌlɛkt/
- Specialized
:
idiolecto
- In War and Peace, the correspondence between Julie and Marie indicates a close similarity on the linguistic plane, for the idiolects of the two women are not noticeably distinguishable, belonging as they do to the same social milieu where French was the accepted language of communication.
Examples
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His unique use of slang and phrases makes his idiolect stand out among his friends.
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I think there are useful parallels, especially if you think of each speaker's idiolect as an individual "organism."
Blog text (7) -
Nothing determinate settles questions of this sort, not even within single idiolects.
Academic text (2001) -
I agree with Hal Hall, and "y'all" is a big part of my idiolect (though it sounds a bit more like ya'll when I say it).
Blog text (6) -
For example, syntactic inversion is often a marker of the Anglo-Irish idiolect associated with (and in fact used to characterize) the father.
Academic text (1994) -
The author’s idiolect reflects her background and personal experiences in every novel she writes.
-
During our conversation, I noticed her idiolect included many local expressions that were unfamiliar to me.
Synonyms
7
3.8
A way of speaking that a person often uses, shown by accent or rhythm
How Individual
- Specialized
1
9.9
63
4.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
idiolect = idio + lect
The word is analyzable as idio- (personal) + -lect (speech), but both are specialized combining forms unfamiliar to many learners, so the meaning is only partly inferable.
Etymology
Idiolect comes from two parts: idio- meaning 'own' or 'personal' and -lect as in dialect, meaning 'speech'. So an idiolect is your 'own' way of speaking, which is why it means the unique language pattern of one person.