Do you lack a "regional accent" because of A.S

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Forevernuts
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19 Oct 2013, 10:51 pm

I suppose this mainly applies to people in the U.S (and Canada I guess) as not many countries have as many dramatically different regional accents as the United States.

I'm wondering if lacking a regional accent compared to the rest of your family/community is A.S related, because I've always had less of a dialect compared to most people where I live (there's a strong dialect here, I won't tell you which one lol). Does anyone find this too?



Sona_21
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19 Oct 2013, 11:46 pm

My accent is -according to people I meet- either English or German. I am american, and so is the rest of my family.



RetroGamer87
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19 Oct 2013, 11:57 pm

Yes! People don't believe I'm Australian! They usually think I'm American because of my rhotacism. I've also been mistaken for British and on one occasion German :?



cathylynn
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20 Oct 2013, 12:47 am

I have a very strong accent congruent with my place of birth. would like to lose it, because it's not pretty for singing, but can't.



cberg
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20 Oct 2013, 12:54 am

I'm American, and people ALWAYS ask where I'm from. A teacher once said I sounded British, although that had more to do with my vernacular. I mostly know Spanish, I've been to Canada, Australia as a kid and loads of strange places in my home country.

I think this ties to why we on the spectrum know so many languages - it's not just that we exist everywhere other people do, most languages I know, written and programmed, I may never get the chance to speak!

Quite an evocative question of information theory you have here...


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The_Rev
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20 Oct 2013, 1:00 am

I lack an accent, IMHO, because I lived in 3 different geographic locations growing up... Kansas, New Jersey, and Iowa.... Not really sure if I can recall any of them having a particularly strong accent... Just the odd word pronunciations here and there. I live in Rhode Island now, and the New England accent drove me NUTS for a long time... Still does, but I find myself using it now.... It started as a deliberate fun-poking at the crazy new englanders for speaking like that, but it kinda got habituated... I don't speak it exclusively, and I've heard recordings of my voice that do sound rather robotic, so i didn't totally pick it up, but... yeah... Not every time I speak New Englandese is an entirely conscious effort.



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20 Oct 2013, 1:21 am

I am an ESL person living in Western Australia. I do have a foreign accent but no one can tell from my accent where I'm from because I have my own accent. Although I do sound like a foreigner, my pronunciation is faithful enough to the dictionary and people can very easily understand what I'm saying.

I believe my having my own accent is because I don't mix with people (I'm isolated enough not to be influenced by others) and I'm very diligent in learning the pronunciation from the dictionary. So being on the spectrum seems to have indirectly affected my accent.



one-A-N
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20 Oct 2013, 2:05 am

At my diagnostic assessment the psychologist actually commented on my accent. He could easily pick my wife as Australian, but couldn't "place" me. Funny thing is, I am born in Australia and my wife isn't.

Lacking a local accent is more common among Aspies than NTs, and it is one example of the unusual features of Aspie communication - it is one subtle way that Aspies don't quite "fit in" with their local society.



NotaHero
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20 Oct 2013, 4:42 am

This definitely applies to the UK as we have loads of regional accents (Mancunian, Scouse, Brummie, West Country, Geordie, Cockney, Yorkshire etc) and to answer your question I should have a Mancunian accent, but it is very weak if an accent at all.



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20 Oct 2013, 5:50 am

I should have a very strong Ulster accent, like my little brother. But I never really had one - as a teenager, when I became more self-conscious (and got sick of dealing with anti-englishness), I mimicked to get by. Now, if I have a pint or two, bits of it come back.

I'm very quick at listening to accents, and good at copying them, because of this. I'll usually pick Canadians from Americans, and Kiwis from Aussies.



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20 Oct 2013, 7:33 am

Forevernuts wrote:
I suppose this mainly applies to people in the U.S (and Canada I guess) as not many countries have as many dramatically different regional accents as the United States.


Disagreed. Lots of countries, my own included, have vastly different regional accents that go well beyond mutual comprehension if they're broad, even when these countries are much smaller geographically (and usually in population too) than the US.

Old countries where the population has mostly stuck around in the same area have tended to develop this way. Rapid travel and communications have caused a trend of accents and dialects gradually converging towards the most influential standard (often the capital city region), but this is a comparatively recent event. Before that there was lots of time for accents to develop while travel and communication were slow and expensive. The US is different as it was settled by umpteen different ethnic groups that have been mixed up most everywhere, if differently, and the country as we know it hasn't been around for all that long. Some degree of convergence was necessary from the start, and the advent of rapid travel, communications, and expectations that people move long distances as needed for employment, came comparatively soon.

I can certainly perceive differences from region to region in the US, but they don't appear that vast by comparison to various European countries. The one notable exception I can recall is New Yorkers can be difficult for me to understand.

Forevernuts wrote:
I'm wondering if lacking a regional accent compared to the rest of your family/community is A.S related, because I've always had less of a dialect compared to most people where I live (there's a strong dialect here, I won't tell you which one lol). Does anyone find this too?


I've heard that mentioned before, and witnessed it personally, though I don't think it's true of me. I'm provincial but moved to the capital region in my mid-20s, so my accent has flattened a fair bit. A trained ear can still perceive traces of my home accent quite well, and it tends to go right back to its original state when I'm talking to people from my home region.



spinningpixie
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20 Oct 2013, 7:56 am

i've gotten comments since i was a child about my lack of accent. it use to be quite irritating in school. it's probably due to my poor auditory processing. i can't hear accents in other people. if someone has a really strong accent i might not be able to understand them but i never hear the accents. i just get frustrated because i know i should understand them but i can't figure out the words.



Mike1
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20 Oct 2013, 9:44 am

I don't think I have much of a regional accent, but the way people talk in my region is the way that sounds most normal to me. I think my accent fluctuates a lot, and I don't have much control over it. I know different pronunciations for many words, and I have to make conscious decisions every time as to how I want to pronounce them. I also always have to make conscious decisions about my choice of words in every conversation, because I can think of many different ways to phrase things. I can use words, phrases, and pronunciations from any dialect of English without it feeling unnatural to me, but I can't modify my accent without it feeling unnatural. I can understand almost any accent, no matter how thick it is, but I can't copy any accent well.



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20 Oct 2013, 9:46 am

Sometimes I talk in a southern accent.



AlexWelshman
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20 Oct 2013, 10:10 am

I know a few British autistic people that sound American.



Asperger96
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20 Oct 2013, 1:14 pm

Hmm... I how can you not have any accent? Like whom would you sound?

I do pronounce Water as 'Wooder' like all the Baltimorians, but is that an accent or a dialect?