Board index › General Discussion › General Autism Discussion

daughter has an american accent - we're not from US

Page 2 of 3 [ 45 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

Previous topic | Next topic

naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 70
Gender: Male
Posts: 35,189
Location: temperate zone

15 Mar 2013, 4:10 pm

gratin wrote:
Warsie wrote:
my accent is 'general midwestern'. I grew up in largely Ebonics-speaking cultures.....


Never heard that term ebonics before, just googled it, good one to know :D


Jay Leno had a hilarious sketch about the "Ebonic Plague".

Emergency responders dressed in germ proof space suits arrive in a community devestated by 'ebonics'. One of them gets a rip in his suit, and starts to talk in ebonics as well.



gratin
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 13 Mar 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 100

15 Mar 2013, 4:11 pm

I love American-English and "ebonics"?
It's other people that think it's strange my daughter has a U.S. accent even though we don't live there.
I suppose she's healthy and articulate what does it matter?



Jinks
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 333

15 Mar 2013, 4:19 pm

gratin wrote:
Jinks wrote:
I remember reading a thread here once which suggested that autistic people are more likely to have a different accent to their surroundings or not pick up the local accent from the people around them in the way you would expect. I have lived all of my life in the place I was born and people ask me where I'm from (I live in the north of England and apparently sound southern). My cousin, who is more severely autistic than I am, often speaks with an American accent he has picked up from TV/films like your daughter. He tends to come out with words and phrases he's memorised from films and adverts.

It may also be because it's easier to memorise words and phrases, especially from things which are watched repeatedly. You will find that your daughter probably has a stockpile of phrases she will use, which is because we autistic people often have difficulty finding the right thing to say in a social situation. If we create an inner reference library we can pick the one which seems appropriate instead of struggling to think it through and work it out using the social rules which to us are difficult to understand. This may seem "robot-like" to someone who is neurotypical, but it's just a way of managing communication when it is a challenge.


Yes, they are things she's watched again and again, and she seems to pluck out something she thinks is appropriate. I don't think I'm neurotypical but am trying to see it from the viewpoint of her school. My immediate family think she's lovely and unique. Thanks for the reply, that's a good perspective. Did people think you were overly posh talking with a southern accent or think you'd moved up from the south? Sorry am a bit of a clost anthropologist and used to live in London.


They tend to think both! I have been described as "posh" a number of times, and people also often assume I must have moved to where I live from somewhere in the south. Though, coming over as "posh" may be due to having a good vocabulary and grammatically correct way of speaking, as well as my accent, as that's somewhat unusual where I live as well.

It makes sense that she is stockpiling reference! I do that too, though I tend to rely on my stock phrases only when I am overwhelmed or under stress. It's great that your family find her wonderful - the most important thing is that she gets positive social feedback.

It may be that she will lose the US accent as she gets older and more comfortable with speech - you can certainly expect other people to be a bit puzzled by it, but hopefully her school and others will be understanding that it's probably one of her autistic traits.



gratin
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 13 Mar 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 100

15 Mar 2013, 4:28 pm

Jinks wrote:
gratin wrote:
Jinks wrote:
I remember reading a thread here once which suggested that autistic people are more likely to have a different accent to their surroundings or not pick up the local accent from the people around them in the way you would expect. I have lived all of my life in the place I was born and people ask me where I'm from (I live in the north of England and apparently sound southern). My cousin, who is more severely autistic than I am, often speaks with an American accent he has picked up from TV/films like your daughter. He tends to come out with words and phrases he's memorised from films and adverts.

It may also be because it's easier to memorise words and phrases, especially from things which are watched repeatedly. You will find that your daughter probably has a stockpile of phrases she will use, which is because we autistic people often have difficulty finding the right thing to say in a social situation. If we create an inner reference library we can pick the one which seems appropriate instead of struggling to think it through and work it out using the social rules which to us are difficult to understand. This may seem "robot-like" to someone who is neurotypical, but it's just a way of managing communication when it is a challenge.


Yes, they are things she's watched again and again, and she seems to pluck out something she thinks is appropriate. I don't think I'm neurotypical but am trying to see it from the viewpoint of her school. My immediate family think she's lovely and unique. Thanks for the reply, that's a good perspective. Did people think you were overly posh talking with a southern accent or think you'd moved up from the south? Sorry am a bit of a clost anthropologist and used to live in London.


They tend to think both! I have been described as "posh" a number of times, and people also often assume I must have moved to where I live from somewhere in the south. Though, coming over as "posh" may be due to having a good vocabulary and grammatically correct way of speaking, as well as my accent, as that's somewhat unusual where I live as well.

It makes sense that she is stockpiling reference! I do that too, though I tend to rely on my stock phrases only when I am overwhelmed or under stress. It's great that your family find her wonderful - the most important thing is that she gets positive social feedback.

It may be that she will lose the US accent as she gets older and more comfortable with speech - you can certainly expect other people to be a bit puzzled by it, but hopefully her school and others will be understanding that it's probably one of her autistic traits.


Aw thanks. It was maybe something to do with not being comfortable with local slang with you as well. In Northern Ireland they say things like "What about ye?" and "What's the crack?". I just never got that. I thought what am I supposed to say back. I'll continue to give her positive feedback!! !



eric76
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,660
Location: In the heart of the dust bowl

15 Mar 2013, 4:54 pm

I used to know a rather brilliant physics doctoral student who had attended undergraduate school at one of the Ivy League colleges.

In one of his classes as an undergraduate, he had a prof who was very good at identifying regional and subregional dialects. As a demonstration in the classroom, the prof had every student talk for a minute or two and then, for nearly every student, identified where that student grew up.

There were a few exceptions, including the one telling me about it, where the student had moved to another region as a child. After a little more probing, the prof correctly determined not only the state where he had spent most of his childhood, but the county and town as well.



idratherbeatree
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 6 Jul 2012
Gender: Female
Posts: 302

15 Mar 2013, 6:02 pm

My accent fluctuates, from british, to dutch, to south african, to australian, to german, and sometimes all of that in one sentence.

I would say speak, and sometimes one word in the sentence would be in a completely different accent. I tend to copy the pronunciation of the last time I heard the word. So if I am talking to you, and you have an accent, I'm likely to start pronouncing words like you.


_________________
Severe Tourette's With OCD Features.
Reconsidering ASD, I might just be NVLD.


hartzofspace
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,138
Location: On the Road Less Traveled

15 Mar 2013, 6:20 pm

gratin wrote:
Aw thanks. It was maybe something to do with not being comfortable with local slang with you as well. In Northern Ireland they say things like "What about ye?" and "What's the crack?". I just never got that. I thought what am I supposed to say back. I'll continue to give her positive feedback!! !

LOL, I totally get that. Here in the US I never know what to say when someone says, "How's it going?" I am always tempted to reply, "How's what going?" :)


_________________
Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.
-- Dr. Dale Turner


Shellfish
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 6 Nov 2011
Age: 49
Gender: Female
Posts: 485
Location: Melbourne, Australia

15 Mar 2013, 7:08 pm

idratherbeatree wrote:
My accent fluctuates, from british, to dutch, to south african, to australian, to german, and sometimes all of that in one sentence.

I would say speak, and sometimes one word in the sentence would be in a completely different accent. I tend to copy the pronunciation of the last time I heard the word. So if I am talking to you, and you have an accent, I'm likely to start pronouncing words like you.


My son does that - he will pronounce the word according to how he heard it which can also be Australian, S.African, American, Kiwi....


_________________
Mum to 7 year old DS (AS) and 3 year old DD (NT)


goldfish21
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 22,612
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

16 Mar 2013, 3:42 am

I used to mimic others' accents after talking with them for a while, too, and then would continue talking with them like that from then on each time we spoke. That's definitely something that happened with a friend of mine when I was 12. I picked up on his Korean accent pronunciations of English words and would then use them that way when talking with him and he'd always be able to tell what I was saying and never once accused me of copying or trying to annoy him. It felt like just a natural way to communicate with him.

And this whole thread reminds me of:

Image


_________________
No :heart: for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.


naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 70
Gender: Male
Posts: 35,189
Location: temperate zone

16 Mar 2013, 9:10 am

hartzofspace wrote:
gratin wrote:
Aw thanks. It was maybe something to do with not being comfortable with local slang with you as well. In Northern Ireland they say things like "What about ye?" and "What's the crack?". I just never got that. I thought what am I supposed to say back. I'll continue to give her positive feedback!! !

LOL, I totally get that. Here in the US I never know what to say when someone says, "How's it going?" I am always tempted to reply, "How's what going?" :)


Atleast you can say "its going fine", or "its going okay".

But Im a native USA person and I have no idea how to respond when my fellow natives ask me "whats happening?". My brain just shortcircuits!

What IS the proper answer to the question "what's happening?"? I cant even think of a bs type answer equivalent to "im fine" for the old fashioned "How are you?" for "Whats happening?".



JellyCat
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 1 Sep 2012
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 338
Location: U.K.

16 Mar 2013, 10:02 am

This is common. May Aspies, especially young girls, copy what they see in-order to try and socialise well.


_________________
An Aspie's habits are incomprehensible to society not because they are illogical or the result of madness, but because they stem from a mind so original that they cannot be seen as societal norms.


bluecurry
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

User avatar

Joined: 15 Mar 2013
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 20

16 Mar 2013, 10:09 am

idratherbeatree wrote:
My accent fluctuates, from british, to dutch, to south african, to australian, to german, and sometimes all of that in one sentence.

I would say speak, and sometimes one word in the sentence would be in a completely different accent. I tend to copy the pronunciation of the last time I heard the word. So if I am talking to you, and you have an accent, I'm likely to start pronouncing words like you.


goldfish21 wrote:
I used to mimic others' accents after talking with them for a while, too, and then would continue talking with them like that from then on each time we spoke. That's definitely something that happened with a friend of mine when I was 12. I picked up on his Korean accent pronunciations of English words and would then use them that way when talking with him and he'd always be able to tell what I was saying and never once accused me of copying or trying to annoy him. It felt like just a natural way to communicate with him.


I am like this too. 'Cept, I was never surrounded by such people as you were, Goldfish21. People always looked at me funny.

I find that after I spend a long time alone and not talking to other people often (I can do this for weeks at a time) I have trouble pronouncing words. I've always blamed it on being naturally predisposed to copying others, and not having a way of my own.

OP, have you ever heard of Echolalia? It might be a interesting read, although it's not entirely on-topic to this thread.



fueledbycoffee
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2010
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 566
Location: Baltimore

16 Mar 2013, 11:06 am

I'm weird. I'm from Maryland. When I was two, my family moved to Yorkshire in Britain for work, and when I was seven we moved back. I learned to drop the British (Mostly RP. Some Tyke influence) accent pretty quickly, and speak with an American accent (Mostly General Midwestern, with enough bits of Virginian and Appalachian to give it a southern tone). Yet oftentimes, when I am comfortable, or giving a lecture, or just feeling nostalgic, that I'll slip back into my British accent.

My parents have always been bewildered by it.



Cafeaulait
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jul 2012
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,539
Location: Europe

16 Mar 2013, 11:39 am

I am Dutch and I have a very American accent when I speak English...

But since English is no my native tongue thats not really comparable



eric76
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,660
Location: In the heart of the dust bowl

16 Mar 2013, 12:06 pm

I was told once that I had a really great southern drawl. I can't say that I ever noticed it myself.



Dizzee
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 26 Mar 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 258
Location: Post-Soviet states

16 Mar 2013, 12:10 pm

I'm European and I always talk or try to talk to be more precise in American accent in any situation, I think It's cool, learned it from movies, been watching a lot of them since childhood. If you think It's a problem for her, I feel sorry for your daughter because really what's the big deal?


_________________
You're so f*****g special
I wish I was special