LINGUISTIC FINGERPRINTS

How much of ourselves do we disclose when we speak or write? A person's accent may reveal, for example, whether they hail from Australia, or Ireland, or Mississippi. But it's not just where we were born--we divulge all sorts of information about ourselves and our identity through language. Level of education, gender, age, and even aspects of our personality can all be reliably determined by our vocabulary and grammar. To those who know what to look for, we give ourselves away every time we open our mouths or tap on a keyboard.