This little chart tells you some interesting things about me.

What you see is that I grew up in the deep South and that a lot of those linguistic features are still with me. I am also an English teacher and therefore have had to adjust how I speak because when you are teaching grammar, it doesn’t work to drop aint’s and y’alls all over the place.

I have also worked overseas for a while and had a few jobs where I traveled significantly within the US, so some of my stronger Dixieisms have been left behind. They come out when I am stressed, tired, or simply getting lazy. I don’t always make a conscious effort to sound less Dixie, but I do subconsciously adjust my speech patterns to the situation which is pretty interesting to me. Give me a week back home with the parents and it’s Tara all over again.