Bristen Shankle
ENGL1301_010
4/28/24
How do I language
Final Draft
About: This interview talks about how growing up in a small town
in WV impacted language and how my mother speaks and how
she had impacted the way that I speak as well.
Bristen: Hi, I wanted to ask a few questions about how we speak
to each other, what might have impacted that way or speaking,
and overall if you would consider it to be the “correct” way of
speaking.
Julie: Sounds good.
Bristen: ok great my first question is how do we speak to each
other most of the time or things say but you don't really say it with
anyone else just like in a home setting kind of.
Julie: I would say that we speak in a way that uses terms that
have their normal ending but we just don't pronounce them like
“mornin” (morn - in) without the “ing” part of the word. My mom
and dad do that with almost every word ending in ing and it's just
something that i’ve got so used to saying and how I have been
told to say it. So I've made it a habit to say words like that over
the years instead of how people would say it normally or see it as
grammatically correct.
Bristen: I see I also find myself doing that with certain words not
pronouncing the ending of the word as well since you often speak
that why on the phone as well i’ve noticed and some people often
ask if you can say what you said they say those words differently.
Julie: Yes, especially on work calls, something will just slip out
and the person I'm talking to seems to not understand the word
I'm trying to say so it can be really confusing.
Bristen: I can see how it would, my next question is how or what
really impacts how you speak?
Julie: Like I said before my family and I lived in a very small
community where most people had really thick southern accents
so over time just being around them and listening to my parents
converse with them like the word or term “holler” (hall-er) is
usually used to describe yelling and or shout but people around
there and Imagine in other places to used it to describe a place.
Bristen: Interesting way of using another word to describe
something that already has a meaning. I find that when I go there
to visit or we go to visit there is often a time where they would say
new words that I never heard before or would not even consider
to be grammatically correct in any way. Do you think that this is
the “correct” way of speaking or how do you see this way or
speaking in other terms.
Julie: I think the way I speak and the way we speak down there is
not anywhere near being grammatically correct but I feel most
people don’t care its what they know and what they are used to
many people see this as informal and I suppose in way it is but I
think all that matters is that we understand each other and it's not
difficult to talk to one another.
Bristen:I see I would agree also for the longest time I had trouble
with saying certain words that in school were pronounce way
different than how they are there and I think overtime i’ve kind of
went away from how I used to pronounce things because I wasn’t
sure how else to say those words then they way I knew originally.
Julie: I can definitely understand that because when I had went
back to school to continue my education I often used grammarly
because I was afraid that I was using certain words wrong or not
in the right context.
Bristen: Yeah it can be a little difficult but after a while you just get
used to trying to type what teachers say is the right to all in all
sounding more formal and profound.
Julie: yes I agree
Bristen: well that's all the question I have thank you for meeting
again to do this interview
Julie: Of course anytime!
Reflection
What I want people to take from this interview is how my mom
being from this place and I also getting to go there. Having
experienced it has well how being there and her being from their
impact certain things that I say or words I use. I also want
someone who is reading this to really understand how this way of
speaking is and how common it can be in such a small community
where everyone knows each other as well as see each other quite
frequently. I feel like a lot of people would consider the way my
mom speaks and some ones that we both say to be incorrect and
or not english but at the end of the day we understand what the
other is trying to say even if it is considered to be informal. A lot of
people who live in WV or that small part of it tend to just make up
their own way of saying words and overtime it kind of caught on to
other people around that area and it was easier to understand
each other.
