Autism and accents

[SchrodingersMeerkat]

As I've gotten older, people have told me I have a bit of a United States Southern accent. I don't live in the south, I live near Cincinnati Ohio. I did spend two years in San Antonio Texas, but I don't recall anyone there having any particular Southern accent.

My dad has his own unique vocabulary. Such as "crotch rocket" for a moped.
Teenager outside is riding a moped down the street as fast as possible making horrible noises.
Me: "Dad? What's that noise?"
My Dad: Some kid on a crotch rocket. Oh, he thinks he's soooo cooool!"

"Booby hatch" for a psychiatric hospital or psychiatric ward. "If you don't cut that out! They're gunna put ya'll in deh booby hatch!" Aside from him, the only place I've ever heard that term is in old 1930's black and white detective movies.

I also RP as my original character. An anthro meerkat inspired alien creature that was raised on Earth and adopted into a family of Earth animals who just sees her as one of their own. They are based on my own parents and older brothers. I don't know why, but I thought it would be so funny to give her a Southern accent.

Someone told me that the accent was always there, but RPing as my "space meerkat" just brought it out. My mom says we are in the Appalachian area. Maybe I have a slight Applician accent? But I have heard of autistic children learning how to speak from watching television and they have a completely different accent from their parents or classmates.

 

[Streetwise]

The part of the brain dealing with sound, is still at age 18 months to 2 years in humans with autistic neurology , a very active time in learning, so of course we can mimic like many birds.

 

[SDRSpark]

"Crotch rocket" and "booby hatch" are (or were) both fairly common terms here in eastern PA. "Crotch rocket" I still hear fairly often. "Booby hatch" I haven't heard in years (which is probably a good thing - that's not really a polite term.)

I pick up accents very easily - I don't realize I'm doing it, so I get a bit self conscious lest people think I'm mocking them. It's not intentional. I actually spent a few days in Kentucky and came back with a far-too-authentic southern drawl LOL. Whoops.

 

[Mary Terry]

Where I live, doctors refer to people who ride crotch rockets as "heart donors". I haven't heard the term "booby hatch" for many decades.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I pick up accents very easily - I don't realize I'm doing it,

Exactly! Me too. And people HAVE pointed it out and/or criticized me for it

 

[GrownupGirl]

In the part of Canada I live in people are well known for having a quaint Scottish or Irish that people from elsewhere have difficulty understanding. I don't have much of an accent at all. I've been told that I speak very well. I've also been, told that I'm intelligent, but that may be due to the general belief in Canada and the US that if you have a strong accent you're basically Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel.

 

[CountryGirl]

my accent is weird
me and my family are from london but i seem to have a country bumpkin accent sometimes sounds Irish but im not irish

 

[Mary Terry]

Everyone has an accent. That is because accents are always relative to the listener. While you may sound like everyone in your neighborhood, as soon as you speak to someone from another location, you are identified as having an accent different from the person you are talking to.

 

[Toirtis]

In the part of Canada I live in people are well known for having a quaint Scottish or Irish that people from elsewhere have difficulty understanding.

Tell me that you are from the Maritimes without telling me that you're from the Maritimes.

I am from the west coast, but thanks to an Irish background (half, anyways), and being raised on British media, I have a bit of a Co. Cork accent when I don't suppress it.

 

[Kavigant]

I've lived all over the continental US and I unconsciously manifest the accent of whichever region I move into.
I once even developed a stutter when I worked with a guy who stuttered. I only realized it when he complained to me about it. As soon as he called it to my attention I was able to stop doing it.
He was angry at me, as he thought that I was mocking his stutter, but I had no idea I was even doing it.

 

[Neri]

I do the accent mimicing thing. Most particularly and difficult for me to NOT do is cockney english, I invariably can't stop myself slipping into cockney if I'm ever around cockney people.
My (also) Aspie partner was working in a computer repair shop and and Indian man came in and asked him something and before he realised what he was doing he answered him with an Indian accent. There were lots of people in the shop and they all just stared at him like "You didn't just do that?!!!" The indian guy was cool about it though.
My Dad, an Aspie linguist, reckons my youngest son (also an Aspie) doesn't have an accent, which I think is weird and wrong, but my son does have a generic received pronunciation accent because he's spent so much time online listening to people from all over the world.
We are Australian, by the way.