asperger's and accents

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^That would make me think you were a foreigner.

I was aquainted with a young guy who briefly was an amateur dj hosting a public access radio show.

On and off air he had this unique style of speech: imagine Rambo/Rocky speaking in that northern blue collar "Yo! Tony! Friggin' Ayyyy" dialect. But that combined with a southern drawl. Northern, and Southern at the same time. Strangest thing I ever heard.

I finally asked some friends of his "what part of the country does your buddy come from?". They all said he was from "around here" in the Washington DC suburbs, and that "he didn't talk that way until he started smoking pot".

Ive heard of folks who get injured to the head, and then start speaking in what sounds like a dialect from a place the person never lived in ( A Brit speaking like an American, or a native born American suddenly speaking in a "Swedish" accent). But upon close examination of cases like that it gets shown that these spontaneous "dialects" are basically speech impediments that only superficially resemble foreign dialects. But...thats from injuries to the head. I didnt know that smoking pot was enough for you to spontaneously go into your own private dialect! Lol!

Many people with Asperger's are fascinated by languages, - either their own or others - and immerse themselves in them to the point where they begin to take on the accents, mannerisms and grammatical structures of that language. Combined with a particular way of speaking, sometimes precise and apparently 'formal', or using an atypical vocabulary, this can cause NTs to think they are foreign.

English speakers, whether from the the UK, the USA, Australia or South Africa etc tend to be ignorant of foreign languages, and interpret any variations in speech as foreign. In Europe, where there are more than 25 languages and countless dialects in use, plus free movement of people, multiple accents usually attract little attention.

I don't have much of any accent at all in my voice. And I live in a province where everyone is supposed to sound Irish or Scottish and people "from away", as it's called around here, have a hard time understanding us. It's like a stereotype, and yet people seem to think you don't have any culture or you're not proud of your heritage if you don't act like the stereotypes. I hate that. I especially hate the stereotype that we will drink you under the table and love seafood. I'm a teetotaler and I've never developed a taste for seafood. Blech!

My parents, on the other hand, are about as Nova Scotian as they come. Especially my dad. Not that long ago I noticed he pronounces words that start with "th" like the "h" doesn't exist. For example he'll say " I'll see you at tree-tirty" instead of "three-thirty". I find it amusing.

Actually, when I was in maybe grade 1, I had some trouble pronouncing the "th" sound, which got my teacher very frustrated with me. Now I think it wasn't really my fault, that was just how I'd always heard it from my parents.

And once when I was younger, a boy thought I was from New York! He said I sounded like him, and he was from New York. Maybe it was just because I had a tendency to speak loudly?

ya i get told all the time i have an accent and ask where it is from and im always like i dont know noone in my family has it its just spontaneous to me.... half the time they think im f-ing with them

I was born and raised in Michigan, but many tell me that I have a New York accent or an accent that can't be identified. I don't switch accents like people in the replies said they do, but I think it is common for people with Aspergers to have accents that aren't related to their history since the whole disorder focuses on verbal and emotional issues.

I have a regular Perth, Western Australian accent. But I've known two other autistic Australians who speak with American accents, the sort you would find on sitcoms here every night.

My family jokes about my accent, which often lapses into something slightly English - my sister is an SLP and she says it's not an accent, it's an over-articulation problem. I suspect that's the cause of most autistic "pseudo-accents." We tend to have strange speech patterns, and I imagine that it can produce some interesting effects.

This is an issue that has been repeatedly pointed out to me.

I grew up in the deep, rural American South to uneducated parents in a region that was generally uneducated itself. In other words, I should sound like a redneck. Everyone where I'm from does to varying extremity.

Instead, I've been told I sound like I have a sophisticated, New England accent. Some people will say I sound Canadian (the way I say "about" is kind of suggestive to be fair). I even have individuals saying that I sound British (one couple from the Northeast assumed that after they found my accent to be similar to their region but nevertheless indecipherable).

When I go home, people have difficulties understanding me. They tell me to slow down and that I sound like "a damn Yankee."

Sometimes I wonder if I was mimicking politicians and pundits. I once idolized those sorts of individuals and often took them more seriously than my own family. I was a big fan of George Stephanopoulos when I was in high school. I suspect I was copying these kinds of people because I didn't have access to the internet back then and we only had one TV channel. Where else did I get it? Also through college I spent an enormous amount of time watching dry political lectures and debates.

At the very least, I'm grateful to have evolved my accent, even if that (among many other things) has contributed to a lack of ability to relate to the locals of my birth region. They think I'm trying to display superiority over them or something.

I was told, as a child, that I had an East Anglian accent (many on my dad's side of the family originate from East Anglia so it vaguely made sense). Now I seem to have a broadly West Midlands accent, kind of a diluted version of Brummie (Birmingham).

My accent is a complete mish-mash that no-one ever identifies as local. I have family from Scotland, Sussex, Notts, and West London; and I've lived in the East Midlands, Essex, and for the longest time, West Yorkshire. I involuntarily mimic other people's accents when I'm speaking to them as well, and my fascination with language means that I've always "collected" idioms, figures of speech, and local slang. My folks only really pick up on the Yorkshire twang, and that's fairly strong now, but every true Tyke can tell that I'm an "offcumden" after just a few words.

As a kid, I grew up in western New York State -- "Upstate New York," people often call it. Nowhere near the city of New York.

At age 5, I became a big ice hockey fan, and was lucky to be able to watch the hockey games on TV or listen to them on the radio. All of the announcers were Canadian, even the ones on the American broadcasts. I tuned in to so many hockey games in my early years, I picked up the announcers' accents and speech cadences, and seemed to have made them my own. Some people thought it was odd that a little American kid would go around talking like a Canadian adult just from following hockey When I was 27, I met my future wife, and during either our 2nd or 3rd date, she told me I sounded like I had a Canadian accent, so I guess I never truly lost it.

I think it is an Aspergers thing for me. There were times as an older kid where I'd spend time at my aunt and uncle's house in North Carolina. After a few hours listening to their neighbors and their kids talk, at least the ones who grew up there, I unintentionally started to adapt their speech patterns and sound more like them. When I'd go back home, I'd go back to speaking how I normally would.

I'm from a little place in thee UK called Saddleworth, its on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire, so my accent was already a bit of a mush mash. I went to boarding school in Billinge which is between Liverpool, Wigan and St. Helens. Its no wonder my accents all over the place. A southern friend always ribs me calling me a 'posh northerner' because I technically have no accent. On the plus side, its served me well on stage as I can mimic other accents.

^^^^greetings, Tickle welcome to WP

Figured I'd dump this here for kick and giggles xD