Accents??

[Judge]

Well...she's got the attitude down pretty good. But her Cali accent needs work. Still, it's better than having to endure Andrew Lincoln pretending to be someone from Georgia. Where's Carl?

 

[Bolletje]

I get called out for switching accents all the time, people think I'm "fake" because of it. Very annoying.

 

[Adonisus]

Funny this should be brought up:

I live in the deep South, and have a very noticeable country drawl. But the funny thing is that I didn't really develop it until I was almost out of High School. Up to that point, I spoke in a very didactic and neutral way that emphasized proper pronunciation.

 

[Vanilla]

I'm Australian and I somehow have a Canadian accent. I don't hear it at all, to me I sort of just sound flat and sort of childlike. Around people, I don't know, or around lots of people, I get extremely soft spoken and sometimes have selective mutism when my anxiety gets really bad. But everyone always asked me where I'm from and about my accent. I even had a guy from Scotland with a heavy Scottish accent asking about my accent and if I was from Canada. How does that even happen? I can't hear it at all. My Dad has always tried to correct me for talking like an American because I'm Australian, not American. But I can't fix it because I can't even hear it. I just know I have an accent because EVERYONE keeps commenting on it. If no one had said anything I would never have known. I can hear everyone else accents just not my own. Like I said to me I just sound flat. Every time someone comments about my accent I don't even know what to say to them. It used to really upset me when people would comment on the way I spoke, I mean on top of everything else that makes me so different to everyone else, I don't know why I have an accent that is not Australian. My family have the strongest dry Australian accents but I don't? I guess I want to know if this a common thing Aspergers struggle with? Or is this just me? And if it is how do you respond to people commenting about the way you speak?

I'm an Aussie who's often told I sound Canadian, though I used to sound American first (when I was younger). In my case, it's due to growing up outside of Australia first (grew up in Asia, where those who speak English tend to sound American). Also noticed that when I was younger, I spent much time being raised by TV. That is to say, I spent more time watching TV and movies, than playing with other kids. Since most TV and films tend to come out of Hollywood, this could be one possible link.

Once I moved to Australia, my accent started to change and incorporated some of the Aussie accent. For some reason, this seems to have changed my American accent to one that sounds more Canadian. Interestingly, I now live in Canada, and many Canadians think I'm also Canadian, though they notice some weird words popping out now and then that don't sound like what they'd expect. Australians and New Zealanders notice my Aussie accent though, and seem to pick it out of the weird American-Canadian-Aussie accent I seem to have.

 

[Silverwhistle]

Ah, this is a very interesting phenomena with Asperger's actually! It's been proven that with some autistic people they will pick up accents of the places they're in very fast, sometimes a matter of hours or days and they can't stop it until they return home. But in your case, I think what you'll find is that you listened to a radio programme, played a game or watched a TV show that you enjoyed a lot growing up and that you've copied a character's accent, and because you were still developing that accent has now been embroidered into you like an accent normally would.

Tony Attwood says that Australia's biggest import is autistic American children because they all speak with American accents!

This is a really fascinating part of the condition. It's all based around the part of autism which is about mimicking. I bet that growing up you were quite good or tried to mimic other people too.

Yes: I had this as a child. I was a small girl in the North of England in the 1960s, with a mother from the area, and a Highland father, but had a very "BBC" accent, presumably picked up from the radio/TV. People used to ask my mother if I'd had elocution lessons, while at school, I was bullied mercilessly, because "talking posh", combined with my passionate interests in history, art, literature & c, meant I was labelled "a snobby cow" and "posh".
My accent has since become more mutable, and I tend to mirror people with whom I'm conversing. It meant I got good marks for my French accent at school, too.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Yes: I had this as a child. I was a small girl in the North of England in the 1960s, with a mother from the area, and a Highland father, but had a very "BBC" accent, presumably picked up from the radio/TV. People used to ask my mother if I'd had elocution lessons, while at school, I was bullied mercilessly, because "talking posh", combined with my passionate interests in history, art, literature & c, meant I was labelled "a snobby cow" and "posh b*tch".
My accent has since become more mutable, and I tend to mirror people with whom I'm conversing. It meant I got good marks for my French accent at school, too.

I know the traditional male BBC accent. I love that one. Not sure on a female version though, I'd like to hear that to identify it. I would know it already. Has got me thinking though wondering if any of them with that sort of accent were autistic.

I do like that buttery smooth English accent. The guy who was featured in Employable Me last year on the BBC, Ashley. He has a great voice. I'm highly jealous.

 

[Silverwhistle]

I know the traditional male BBC accent. I love that one. Not sure on a female version though, I'd like to hear that to identify it. I would know it already. Has got me thinking though wondering if any of them with that sort of accent were autistic.

I do like that buttery smooth English accent. The guy who was featured in Employable Me last year on the BBC, Ashley. He has a great voice. I'm highly jealous.

Listen to Valerie Singleton on old broadcasts of Blue Peter. I also had a very advanced vocabulary, which the knuckledraggers I was at school with didn't appreciate, either.

 

[Silverwhistle]

Listen to Valerie Singleton on old broadcasts of Blue Peter.

No. I don't think the people on radio/TV were autistic. But it was the fact that I spoke like them, not like anyone in the working-class Yorkshire environment around me, that made me conspicuous.

I also had a very advanced vocabulary, which the knuckledraggers I was at school with didn't appreciate, either.

 

[Gerti]

I live in Chile, but as mentioned by a few others here, I too am VERY good at mimicking accents (most likely thanks to my neural connections and my place on the spectrum, but nonetheless I am a "master" of accent mimicry).
I can watch a movie or TV show and then impersonate the accent right away, even if I had never heard it before. I can't mimic the "voice", only the accent, so I could make my accent sound like I grew up next door to Queen Elizabeth, but I could never trick someone into thinking I was her. I just copy accents but use my own voice to transmit them.

I won several blue ribbons in PRANK CALL competitions as a child

I work for a global company and speak with US citizens** all the time and without fail they are always shocked when they learn I am Latino. It is mostly because they rarely detect a Hispanic accent and because I have a somewhat common "english language" name - Gertrude (thanks to immigrant parents from old Czech country). It also helps that I am fluent in a few languages, but I have always been able to have fun mimicking accents of all kinds even as a young child.



**I do not use the word "American", it is not a proper term to indicate one's citizenry or native culture.
America is actually a land mass in the Western Hemisphere, NOT a country - composed of 2 separate continents and 35 different countries from Canada to the southern tip of Chile If you live anywhere in NOrth or SOuth America, then you are indeed "American"...but this term offers no designation whatsoever to a specific country or citizenry! Many times when asked where they are from, US citizens will simply respond by saying "America" or "I'm American" - but this makes me giggle a little. I know there is rarely any aggression intended with this kind of reply, but I think it is truly a result of cultural arrogance, however innocent it may be- and could be considered by many as a solid indication that one has not travelled very far outside of the US or Western European borders.
For me, it is the equivalent of asking someone from Uganda, "where are you from" and then they simply respond by saying "Africa" or "I'm African" or someone from Italy saying they are from Europe or European---- it makes no sense to a rational mind (or rather, it makes no sense to my NON-NT mind, LOLOL!), especially when we all understand the intention of that question is to identify someone's native culture or country connection.
OK, OK, my world view is BIGGER than yours - I must cope with that, but my aspie mind MUST call you out on it

 

[pax]

I'm Australian

and yes, we have a hell of a lot of languages...

 

[Full Steam]

Ah, this is a very interesting phenomena with Asperger's actually! It's been proven that with some autistic people they will pick up accents of the places they're in very fast, sometimes a matter of hours or days and they can't stop it until they return home. But in your case, I think what you'll find is that you listened to a radio programme, played a game or watched a TV show that you enjoyed a lot growing up and that you've copied a character's accent, and because you were still developing that accent has now been embroidered into you like an accent normally would.

Tony Attwood says that Australia's biggest import is autistic American children because they all speak with American accents!

This is a really fascinating part of the condition. It's all based around the part of autism which is about mimicking. I bet that growing up you were quite good or tried to mimic other people too.

Really interesting!

My life girl is aspie, and she picks up American accents after a few weeks of watching American TV shows, so we actually limit US TV for that reason.

She's mostly got an aussie accent with correct pronunciation, but sometimes slips. Water becomes warder.


I find I repeat in my head interesting mannerisms and accents and then weeks later get the urge to speak that way.

 

[Danny 74]

I'm confused by your statement that no words that sound alike in American sound the same in British. How do Brits pronounce "their", "there", and "they're"; or "its" and "it's"; or "meat" and "meet"; or "stare" and "stair"; or "counsel" and "council"? Don't all those words sound the same in British English as they do in American English?

They are all pronounced the same meat is meat......!

 

[Danny 74]

Meet is the same as meat... Sorry for thr mistake haha.

 

[Danny 74]

I'm from Liverpool and thought I had a Scouse accent, but when people first meet me they think I'm Irish.

Scouse comes from a mixture of irish and Norwegian. ...! So im told.
Due to.the sailors.that.were in the docks a lot...

 

[Vanilla]

Yes: I had this as a child. I was a small girl in the North of England in the 1960s, with a mother from the area, and a Highland father, but had a very "BBC" accent, presumably picked up from the radio/TV. People used to ask my mother if I'd had elocution lessons, while at school, I was bullied mercilessly, because "talking posh", combined with my passionate interests in history, art, literature & c, meant I was labelled "a snobby cow" and "posh".
My accent has since become more mutable, and I tend to mirror people with whom I'm conversing. It meant I got good marks for my French accent at school, too.

Sorry to hear yours led to bullying. That's rather harsh.

 

[Richard Jewell]

I went to private school, and lived in Scotland for a while. I can switch between BBC English and Northern Isles Scots seamlessly, though the upmarket English is my natural accent.

 

[Mr Allen]

I'm from Sheffield, England and at the moment my accent is a mix of broad Yorkshire, Mancunian and a bit of Liverpudlian.

 

[Mr Allen]

When I am angry, and/or in a bad mood, I become fluent in broad Liverpudlian.

And after 5 years of watching Mrs Brown's Boys, I can swear like an Irishman.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I'm wondering what the OP means by a "Canadian" accent, since Canada has a variety of accents and dialects. I not only live in Canada, but in Nova Scotia where everyone supposedly has a quaint Irish or Scottish accent. But I've been told that mine is very neutral. Anyway, why do people care so much? I should be allowed to speak in the way that come naturally to me, and it's not like I'm swearing and using bad grammar constantly.

 

[Veruca Salt]

I pick up peoples accents very quickly, this thread has been quite eye opening I never connected it to autism/my echocholia before nw but that makes so much sense!