By Idiolect

I'd like some comments on this.Ugly, ugly, ugly!!! I don't reduce that vowel in that position. No way! Maybe it's my idiolect. I'm going to listen to my friends in the next few weeks, and I'll report back. CJ

Milky wrote:I keep hearing "adult native English speakers do not commit errors in usage". Do you agree with that "quote"?It isn't entirely clear what an "error in usage" is.If someone is competent in their own idiolect (does that follow by definition?), they could still make errors, or...

From my experience, the form "and" is used most naturally in North American English, however, many people have the form without the "and" in their idiolect, because math books caution against its used. Most math books insist that one should only use "and" when refering to a decimal point, and...

I don't know how it is in Britain, but in North American English, the /En/ and /An/ forms are both used, however, the /En/ form is used much more often. It is determined by idiolect and not region. It is sort of similar to milk vs. melk; rowt vs. root, etc.

Hwat for what is the original pronunciation and was the only form used in Middle English. In Modern English, many dialects lost the wine-whine distinction, and began pronouncing words spelled "wh" as simply "w", rather thn "hw". The original, conservative form is still around, and is considered...

>> A lot of inconsistency for either. More often, I say it with the I sound, but even so, I'll sometimes say ee. I think it's regional varation on this one. <<I think that it's not so much region (in NAE), but rather idiolect that determines the pronunciation of "either". Most...

#2 is not correct. "When dialects diverge to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, they become languages in their own right" That is not always the case. For example, "Chinese" dialects are mutually unintelligible, but "Chinese" is often regarded as being a language. Swedish,...

MrPedantic wrote: Students whose only experience of English was the idiolect of an eccentric teacher might well develop a microlect. Later, they might recognize non-contemporaneous pupils of the same teacher by their English. MrP Like, "I speak Standard Miss Brown English and she Standard...

Students whose only experience of English was the idiolect of an eccentric teacher might well develop a microlect. Later, they might recognize non-contemporaneous pupils of the same teacher by their English. MrP

In my idiolect, only "bitten" would be permitted.Wiktionary lists both.