you are right. i will say that i do my "southern talk" all in good fun.
i have lived in the south, not sure if greenville is considered the 'deep south' or not, for over 5 years now. i have loved it. great people. very, very friendly. never even came close to having a problem nor have i seen the 'racist attitudes' that are supposed to be rampant in these parts. not even close and when people try and throw out that stereotype about southerners, it does piss me off.
i do my 'southern talk' out of, well, kind of a respect. and to poke fun, sure. the south definitly has a differnet lingo and way of talk. nttiawwt. well, other than gramatically, but im not one to talk. i suck at grammer and spelling so take that fwiw.
i still cant figure out why my wife says "i seen that the other day" rather than "saw" but, everyone does it here. just seems wrong to me but whatever.
i still to this day struggle to have a conversation with my father in law and brother in law. they are like 'boomhower' in slowmotion with mushmouth thrown in for good measure. i just cant understand what they are saying for the most part. i get about one out of every 4 or 5 words. i love 'em. they are great people but they definitly have a different way of speaking english than im used to.
meh, i do it all in fun.