I never considered myself to have a special dialect; in fact I never really considered how language even played a part in my life. Reflecting back I am seeing more how parts of my language I never thought of before really make me who I am, and how I am. My parents are both from the northeast; most of my family is in the northeast as well. But I grew up in a military family, and traveling to different states and even countries has had affect on my language throughout the years. Traveling evolved my language as well as exposing me to others early on. I think I’m a little more understanding and less judgmental because of how I’ve been exposed. My dialect begins with my parents. Mom and Dad are both from the Northeastern United States. Areas like Michigan and Upstate New York were their home states. My father’s side is in Michigan, but they sound more southern to me. My grandpa was originally raised in Kentucky so that might be the southern drawl. Growing up I used to think the way they talked was kind of funny. Like how my grandma says, “pop,” instead of soda. Another one my grandma used was, “reatched,” instead of reached, as in, “I reatched over to grab the remote.” Or my grandfather who was always saying stuff I didn’t understand like the words in the, “Sounds of the South,” article. He would say words like, “mosquito hawk,” and I would have no clue what they meant. I thought they were uneducated and to some extent I was right. My grandparents were raised in the depression era so working was more important than schooling. It’s not that they are illiterate, they just don’t know much else about other languages or dialects, which leads me to think they were uneducated. Switching to my mothers side, they are in Upstate New York. The Adirondack Mountains are the backyard to my grandparents, aunts and uncles. In my eyes they were very country while I was growing up, I would even go as far to say hillbilly. T