01 Feb 2021
Everyone’s speech is a mix of forms that have been acquired at different points in one’s development. Moreover, the sources of these forms are often quite varied. Try, through introspection and careful monitoring of your own usage over several weeks (keeping a diary might be useful), to determine the sources of your own vocabulary and pronunciations and grammatical forms; relate your findings to what is known about dialect borrowing (see, e.g. Bloomfield 1933 or Hockett 1958 as well as Hock and Hock & Joseph, on this notion) and about change in an individual’s language throughout his/her lifetime.