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Each of us has an unique way of talking: even if you read something your friend had said in print, you’d immediately recognize it as your friends’ words, and think “oh, that is just typically so-and-so.”

Within linguistics (the study of languages) your unique way of speaking is called your ideolect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideolect) . Characters in prose or poetry have idiolects too: For instance, just like you would be able to recognize Sherlock Holmes (tall, deerstalker cap, pipe) if you saw him in the streets, his language use is also very recognizable: “Quite so!” said he, a little nettled. “Every problem becomes very childish when once it is explained to you. Here is an unexplained one. See what you can make of that, friend Watson.” (The Adventure of The Dancing Men).

A character’s ideolect, his or her unique voice, is a great tool to make your story or poem memorable: it need not be as obvious and over the top as Uriah Heep’s h-dropping found in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, but can be used in subtle ways, as in real life, and can play just as crucial a role in the characterization as the character’s physical appearance and psychological traits.

A great example of this can be found in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited: one of the supporting characters is introduced by means of direct speech, rather than his name

” When the eggs were gone and we were eating the lobster Newburg, the last guest arrived. ‘My dear,’ he said, ‘I couldn’t get away before. I was lunching with my p-p-preposterous tutor. He thought it very odd my leaving when I did. I told him I had to change for F-f-footer’”. (Waugh 34)

You can notice his characteristic stammer ” p-p-preposterous” and emphatic stress “F-f-footer” ; this will appear in much of his speech.
The voice of his character, Anthony Blanche, is emphasized again and again: it plays an important role in the characterization:

” After luncheon he stood on the balcony with a megaphone..and in languishing tones recited passages from The Waste Land to the sweatered and muffled throng that was on its way to the river. I, Tiresias, have foresuffered all” he sobbed to them from the Venetian arches.” (Waugh, 34).

I could give more examples from this great novel, but I’d like to discuss how you as a writer can give your story’s characters an unique voice.

Three possible ways:

1) observation: listen to people talk, notice how they talk.
2) imitation: study the writings of others
3) construction: building the character’s ideolect out of the several divisions of linguistics.

The first two ways are rather obvious, it’s the third that I find most interesting: an ideolect can be said to have several aspects, and each can be used creatively.
Using the definitions found in this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics) Wikipedia article on linguistics, I will discuss the possibilities which each aspect gives you:

“Phonetics, the study of the physical properties of sounds of human language & Phonology, the study of sounds as discrete categories in the speaker’s mind that distinguish meaning” :

Here you try to represent the way the speaker’s words sound: does he/she have a lisp, does he/she stutter, does he/she have an accent, a particular way of pronouncing vowels or consonants? Doeshe/she drop certain sounds? Is the character’s voice monotonous, musical, quiet, loud etc.

“Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words”: morphology is about the form of words: here you can put such “dialect” features as the presence or absence of -s to form the plural of a verb. You can also use such characteristics as a character’s use of affixes or compounds to reveal something about that character, e.g. his or her social background. Don’t underestimate the use of “dialect” (linguistics prefers the word “language variety): it can create a very powerful contrast between two characters.

“Syntax, the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences” What words does your character foreground in a sentence? Does he/she use long or short sentences? Which word order does he/she prefer? Does he/she use complicated sentences, with a lot of subclauses, or simple ones?

Semantics, the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences: “Does your character use the same meaning of a certain word as the other characters? Do the characters understand each other? Does he/she use jargon? What does he/she know about the world? What does he/she suppose others to know about the world? Are there certain phrases he/she uses a lot? Does he/she use dialect words? However, I wouldn’t recommend having your character use jargon or certain phrases all the time, as it gets boring very quickly. You should strife for an amount of contrast within your character’s speech. An example from real life: famous art director Ingmar Bergman, who was highly and the son of a pastor, used a lot of profanity in his interviews.

“Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts” though often considered the “waste basket of linguistics” this is probably the most interesting aspect when creating a character: How does your character use language? What does he/she try to achieve with it? Does he/she manipulate, beg, inform, tell a secret, give commands? Is the language use indirect, using a lot of might/may/I was wondering if/sorry but etc., or very direct? What’s the goal/function of a character’s string of sentences? Does the form of an utterance -e.g. a question- contrast with its content /intention, e.g. it is intended as a command?

“Discourse analysis, the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written or signed)” Try to analyze the dialogues and the monologues of your characters: what does it contribute to your story. What does it tell about the relation between the characters, about the subject you’d like to discuss in your story? What does it reveal about the objects, time, place or atmosphere?

The final step:

Once the character’s ideolect has been constructed, imagine hearing him or her talk: picture yourself sitting in a room with that person and listen to it or imagine the character talking in the situation you’re writing about. Write it down, make drafts, but don’t forget to keep it fun.

Once you know the character’s voice, you’ve gotten to know that character better, just like you’d get to know a friend better. You’ll surprised to see where this will take your story and how much inspiration it will give you.
Good luck!

Bibliography:
Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited. Reprint of revised ed. 1960. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967.