My Idiolect

My accent is greatly influenced by where I come from and my family. Due to all my family being from Norfolk it means I also speak with a Norfolk accent as they are my biggest influence. This becomes stronger when I am with certain family members, for example, my Granddad as he has a stronger accent than the rest of my family. My accent tends to change when I am with certain friends from different geographical roots, for example, when I am with my friend from Essex I often adapt an Essex accent on particular words such as 'miwk' instead of 'milk'.

Another influence on my idiolect is my job, where I am often code shifting. This is because when I speak to the customers I have to be polite and tend to speak with a high prestige whereas when I am speaking to my colleagues it is informal. As my colleagues are all older than me I speak to them differently compared to how I would speak to someone of a similar age.