The range of illumination:

When I was little, I could always tell what sort of phone call my mother was on by the way she was talking... I could tell she was talking to her best friend because she'd talk like her, or it was our gossipy redneck neighbor on the line if she suddenly had a southern accent. I catch myself doing the same thing sometimes. I absorb things from others unconsciously and adapt my speech mannerisms. Oddly, my friend's parants once told her that she was starting to talk like me! Go figure. I thought I just talked like her, and everyone else. When two people who do this talk, how do they know who to adapt to?