Who influenced my language?

I’ve thought about this for a while and I’m still not sure what the answer is completely.  I think it has to do with the way that I learn in general.  I’m not big on reading or studying to get my knowledge; I learn from listening, watching and doing.

There were very few people in my life while I grew up that would use any sorts of slang or what would be considered broken English.  That doesn’t mean to say that they wouldn’t slip up and use something that wasn’t proper, though.  With my mother being one of eight children from her family, there were a lot of times where things became social.  Every major holiday we would go down to my grandmother’s house for dinner and just about everyone would show up.  They would spend hours talking about their life, their jobs, their friends or even nothing in particular.

Even with the social side of my mother influencing how my speech patterns developed, I believe it was my father that was the major influence in how I talked.  His family is not as close as my mother’s and I think this lead to him being more of a quiet person.  Yes he is social and has friends that he visits with on a regular basis, but the way he talks is much more of a “when it’s needed to be said” sort of way.

I fall somewhere in between these.  I’m a rather quiet person and talk when I feel I can add to the conversation, but I for the most part speak following most of the rules of English.