What Exactly is Linguistic Identity?

Linguistic identity is unique to each individual. Every individual uses languages and dialects of languages a little differently. Here in America, two people could be saying the exact same word, but depending on where they are from in the country the word could mean two completely different things. No two people can use language exactly the same without one of the people sounding phony. People are not able to take words and phrases from a group of people without them sounding out of place using those words. Those words are not a part of where they came from or who they grew up around, those words are not a part of their linguistic identity. Each individual has their own linguistic identity because everyone is from different places, they are from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and they grow up in different time periods. Each person's definition of linguistic identity should take into consideration these aspects of themself and be unique to specifically them, because everyone is different and their language and dialect should reflect just that. My linguistic identity will never be like my mother's, my sibling's, or my friend's, because they are not me, my linguistic identity will always be unique to me. I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and if you have seen the movie Fargo, you know that most people from that area of the country have a little accent in how they pronounce some words, for me I say "bag" like"beg" and "bagel" like"begel". My Mid-West accent will never be like my mother's, however because I only lived there for four years while she spent most of her life in the Mid-West and says most of her words with a slight North Dakota/Minnesota accent. I moved to California when I was four and with all the different cultures in close knit communities there I picked up a slang that many people from California have that mixes hispanic heritage and phrases with a strong influence of "black language", as Baldwin calls it.

My linguistic identity and the dialect I use in my everyday English language is unique to me, just like everyone else's linguistic identity is unique to who they are and where they came from.