• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Aspies Using Different Accents

There are documented cases (not just autistic) where the child in question has learned to speak from repetitive watching of foreign TV/movies rather than from their parents. Their accent consequently matches the source. We get A Lot of American TV in the UK. My own generation more or less grew up on Hanna Barbera cartoons, for instance.

Some autistic people also experience a form of accent based echolalia - I do it myself. I find myself unconsciously mimicking the accent if whomever I'm conversing with. I have to be very careful to watch out for it because people find it very insulting - they think they're being mocked.
I think there's a significant chance that the kids mentioned do not have FAS but actually fall into 1 of the 2 categories described above, or maybe just prefer the sound of their voice in the alternate accent and don't care what others think.
 
Strange. The American accent could have been a result of US TV-show influences however, they say "no previous exposure", but for children of ages between 6-9 years old it would have been a difficult thing to avoid.

The accents thing I notice in a different way, however. My accent will change depending who I'm with, it's naturally softly European, however, it can be turned up into American (I went to an American school in the UK), or more strongly European if I'm around someone not of UK origin. It goes British at times too depending on who I'm with. It doesn't appear to be static.
 
Yes, I've heard of the condition, but not associated with autism. That it's a condition more commonly associated with various forms of brain injuries and the central nervous system.

I switch on an off with a "Tidewater" accent on occasion, but it's one I acquired as a child growing up in Virginia. More apt to come out when I'm fatigued or angry, or when I converse with another person from the South or even Texas. Go figure.
 
Last edited:
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, where everyone supposedly has a Scottish or Irish accent, but I don't have much of an accent at all. Someone once described it as "neutral", which is what people outside of Canada seem to describe as "American", which I find very annoying. I have no problem with it, and people have told me that I speak very well.
My older brother doesn't really have an accent either, unless "monotone" is an accent.;)
 
Might be mimicry, which is kind of natural. Or perhaps a flat voice which to some reminds them of USA english.
 
Everyone has an accent because the "accent" is relative to the listener. There is no such thing as "no accent" because someone else is always listening. ASD children with echololia can often perfectly mimic voices that they hear. My nephew did it for years when he was growing up; doesn't do it much these days.

British TV's efforts to duplicate an "American accent" has always annoyed me because it sounds so phoney. People in the US have a plethora of accents: southern drawl, midwestern twang, Oklahoma nasal-speak, Louisiana Cajun which sounds a lot like the Bronx, California valley-speak, etc. When I lived in Utah, one of my neighbors told me a story about "farty harses by the crick in the pasture"... She was actually saying "forty horses by the creek in the pasture". LOL :)
 
Mary Terry said:
British TV's efforts to duplicate an "American accent" has always annoyed me because it sounds so phoney. People in the US have a plethora of accents: southern drawl, midwestern twang, Oklahoma nasal-speak, Louisiana Cajun which sounds a lot like the Bronx, California valley-speak, etc. When I lived in Utah, one of my neighbors told me a story about "farty harses by the crick in the pasture"... She was actually saying "forty horses by the creek in the pasture". LOL
Click to expand...

I think the same can often be said about Americans trying to imitate the "British accent" too :D
 
It's all relative. I still recall having to go back east for corporate training and encountering fellow underwriters from every branch in New York. Where those from Buffalo and Rochester spoke much like most folks out west. But then the people from different boroughs of New York City....I practically needed a phrasebook to keep up with them. And how I found talking to other employees from Alabama, SC and Texas just seemed comforting. And dealing with people in central city of Philly could be quite amusing too. Hearing all about "Youze guys".

I used to always laugh watching actor Barry Morse portray a Brit in the tv series "Space 1999". Until many years later I learned that Barry Morse WAS British. I always hated the infamous Lieutenant Gerard in "The Fugitive", but I never gave any thought to him being a foreigner! Oops. :oops:

Frankly these days with so much excellent and formal coaching, a lot of actors can be trained to effectively sound like someone they aren't. Like uber-skilled actors Daniel Day Lewis, Charlize Theron or Cate Blanchett who can convincingly play just about anyone from anywhere. Remember "Addy" from "Z Nation"? She's Russian. Some can deliver the goods, others can't.

Though on occasion I have seen actors like Mark Rylance who was supposed to portray a Soviet covert operative in New York skillfully extracting atomic bomb secrets in America. (Bridge of Spies) He sounded neither like an American or a Russian, with his Scottish accent continually popping up. The again I suppose the Scots would probably have had a bone to pick with Star Trek's Canadian James Doohan as well. And watching Monty Python's Graham Chapman struggle to do a terrible American accent....priceless. And then there were like Richard Burton, James Mason and Peter Firth who embarrassingly attempted to portray Southerners. Ouch.

American television and film is a very lucrative industry. Attracting all kinds of talent well beyond our borders. Whether English is or isn't their first language.

Still, it might be amusing to have some up-and-coming actor skillfully doing various accents to be asked by the press how they do it. Imagine an actor lamenting that it simply involved a blow to the head. :eek:
 
Last edited:
Many French people who learn English, speak with an American accent. And note, that any other culture that learns English, always speaks with an American accent too. Which means they are being taught by an American, which is most interesting.

I remember this one woman in my birth country, who had what we refer to as an: Devonshire accent, but she married someone who came from the North of England and when we met them, we thought she was from the North too; there was no hint of Devonshire accent from her.

I can mimic a French person quite well and get roars of laughter ( from French people), because of the accuracy; however, clearly my accent is British, because they often reply in English!
 
I switch between accents naturally and mostly not on purpose. My native language is Dutch, my Dutch accents switch depending on who I’ve been hanging out with. I generally sound rather posh, but I speak various regional dialects occasionally.

When speaking English, my default is British, but I have been known to speak with a cockney or Scottish accent. Then there’s the occasional moment where I slip into American, which can range from Valley Girl to what, as someone once described it, sounds like “ Harlem ghetto p*ssy”
 
When I visited Amsterdam a few years back I was amazed at how many locals spoke with American accents. Plenty didn't but a great many did.

As to British/American actors being unconvincing aping each other's accents - there's a surprising amount of British actors now working in the US which have been a surprise both to us and Americans that they're not American themselves. Some have been not so good. There seem to be a lot more Brits working in the US than vice versa though.

Recently we had kiwi Karl Urban fooling Americans in Almost Human and the JJ Star Trek movies, but being the worst cockney ever in The Boys. I can remember being surprised how authentic Robert Downey Jr sounded in the Sherlock Holmes movies he did and reading Americans commenting online on what a convincing Australian accent Mel Gibson had in the Mad Max movies... erm...

So...I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it on here before, but can anyone identify the town I grew up in from my accent?
 
Monachopia said:
I think the same can often be said about Americans trying to imitate the "British accent" too :D
Click to expand...
I couldnt not reply to this ,The accent always used is farcical ,why they couldn’t dub the voice with a British voice actor I do not know!!! , why G~d oh why is it always an East London accent , A certain amount of Americans must think there is a nation made up of speakers with an East London accent .
 
Streetwise said:
I couldnt not reply to this ,The accent always used is farcical ,why they couldn’t dub the voice with a British voice actor I do not know!!! , why G~d oh why is it always an East London accent , A certain amount of Americans must think there is a nation made up of speakers with an East London accent .
Click to expand...

East London was never the same to a lot of Americans after "To Sir With Love". ;)


London's east end goes back more than 300 years. Maybe longer. But to many Americans it's only been around since 1967. :p
 
Last edited:
I still crack up over the cast of "Doc Martin" with star Martin Clunes pointing out that none of them actually speaks with a Cornish accent. Oops. Great people though. :p

Claire Bloom- another actor on Doc Martin who can mimic Americans quite well. :cool:

But then accuracy of much of any kind doesn't seem to impress Hollywood either. :eek:
 
The Doctor Who series with David Tenant and Matt Smith. Always surprised me at how America they sounded.
 
Aspergers_Aspie said:
Anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...
People used to think I was british but it was based on some small pronunciations I would make (I'm Australian). Nothing big.
I continue to pick up small pronunciation differences if I spend a lot of time with people who have an accent different to my own one. Though I try to be aware now and limit it because I feel that many NT's would feel this is not a positive thing (weird, taking someone else's culture etc etc) and it's made me quite self-conscious about it even though I myself was never aware previously. It's now another thing about myself that I have to be aware of and worry about, I guess.
People also used to ask if I was from the country. I wasn't. I talked slowly compared to those from the capitals, apparently.
I can completely understand how, through mimicry, your accent could change considerably. I would imagine that for some people with Autism this is much more likely to happen than for other people.
 
One thing I do wonder about is whether some of these actors who so routinely do quality foreign accents eventually change their own manner of speaking. Especially if most of their work is often in another country.

Though there are other considerations that can be hysterical. Like Carrie Fisher's "transatlantic" accent. (Remember the Howells in Gilligan's Island?) Where did that come from? :confused:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom