The phrase learned from a friend can keep their voice long after pronunciation becomes yours.

People leave pieces of themselves in your speech. A phrase picked up from a friend stays in circulation for decades, and although the accent flattens into your own, the small pause before you say it still belongs to them. This is one of the ordinary ways relationships persist, in habits of language rather than in anything you deliberately kept.

Listen out this week for words you did not invent and try to remember who handed each one to you. If they are still around, telling them is a good gift. If they are not, the phrase is a way of hearing them.