Lowe- Blog 1

Mary Elizabeth Lowe
English 1101
Hughes
Blog 1


Throughout our lives there are a variety of influences which bombard us on a daily basis from many different avenues such as the media and billboards, to friends and family. This is no less true regarding the linguistic influences which mold and shape our minds and voices into the people we are today.
As a young child during my formative years I was closely connected to my parents and their unique speech patterns and lexicons were undoubtedly the number one factor in my own linguistic development. My mother is a native Georgian and my father is Bahamian, which in itself created a unique mix of accents and words; however, they then moved to Ohio and resided there for a number of years prior to their move to Alabama and the dawn of my existence. I believe that these differing accents joining together have served as a direct influence upon me and certainly merit mention in my history of language.
Another aspect which has impacted my language is the fact that I was homeschooled until the tenth grade which made my linguistic experience quite different from the majority of the population. While I was involved in sports, clubs, academic organizations and various other exposures to language, the majority of my time was spent with my family and their language standards.
An additional part of my linguistic history concerns my study of foreign languages. During school I learned a sample of both Latin, which I studied during middle school, and Spanish, which I was taught during high school. Though I cannot speak Spanish fluently the base knowledge of these two languages has broadened the scope of my root word understanding.
One common occurrence in my life which I have found rather odd is the repeated misbelief that I am from somewhere other than Alabama and Georgia. Many times while making small talk with nurses, bankers, or other stranger they ask me where I am from and they act rather shocked to learn I live in the same county in which they reside. They then explain their reaction by stating I have an accent resembling those from "the north". To me this is a peculiar thing to say because to me I sound just like everyone else around me here in the south, so it will be interesting to see how my accent adapts following my time here at Young Harris as I continue building my linguistic history one day at a time.