'Adopting' other people's speaking styles

Post Reply New Topic

Does anyone else do this when they are around a certain group?
I know children over time develop their own speech through the people they are around. But then as they reach their teens it seems to level out and they keep that same way of speaking.

But for me with ASD I find myself with this constant plasticity.
If I am around mostly 'hood' type people I adopt their speech style.
If I am around 'southern country' people I adopt that style.
If I am thinking about people who I admire in some way, I can speak like them.
Rarely do I use a 'normal' 'white person' voice and often it comes out monotonic.

It's like, I have to use that sort of 'mod' on my brain software in order to sound interesting with intonation etc of a 'normal person'.
Some people suggest that I am a "chamelion" or even sociopathic because I tend to do this so easily.
I'm not sure if this is AS or a 'sociopathic' trait! I believe it is a coping mechanism for AS! This kind of imitation seems to flatter them and make them more predisposed to liking you if they don't catch it as being some kind of chamelion behavior.

Thoughts? Experiences?

I think it is pretty normal. I think all people do that. It is just an hability to fit in, to become part of the group. Dont worry too much about it. My husband and daughter do that all the time. When we went to yhe movies to watch Rango my daughter spent the rest od the evening speaking like Beans.

I am good at matching other people's speech styles and I do so without thinking most of the time. I had some guy ask me if I was Indian one time just because I was replying with the proper accent (I really don't look Indian at all!). I've also been asked if I was a foreigner before because of the way I talk. When I speak foreign languages, my pronunciation is usually near-perfect and people tell me so. I have very good pitch and recall when it comes to music and songs, too.

I suppose it's both good and bad, really. In some ways, it's a gift. On the other hand, people will sometimes accuse you of trying too hard to fit in and being a chameleon. Oh well! My advice would be to just take it for what it's worth and consider it one of your talents.

I notice I'm saying certian words with a British accent and sometimes an Irish one. Our landlord would send his kids to their grandparents in Mexico so they could be fully emersed in the Spanish language. I have relatives in Ireland and I told me my mom she and my dad should send me to stay with them for the summer so I can be imersed in Irish accent. She says I would probably pick up on it very quick.

Well this is kind of a funny example but there is this animated show called Metalocalypse about a metal band called Dethklok and there are two scandinavian band members. So me and my brother like this show and sometimes when we are together we will start trying to imitate how the scandinavian members talk.......its not exactly a real scandinavian accent and peopel do give us weird looks but we both will go into that without even realising it.

or sometimes especially when I drink I might go into a probably rather inaccurate british accent....and my sister will likely do the same.

Haha Sweetleaf Metalocalypse is hilarious. Best show on AS imo...
Syrella I am good at this also... When I speak spanish the teacher called me a natural... Language rules come easy I believe it is an intuition of recognizing patterns suboncsiously for some people.
So I suppose imitation is not limited to people with ASD..

I do it with both speaking styles and gestures.

I pick up accents, too. The curious thing is that as I get older is doesn't happen so quickly anymore. When I moved to the South, I feared that I would start speaking like Southerners (I don't particularly care for that accent) but instead, my native NJ accent actually got stronger.

I am very much guilty of this.

BUT SO ARE NTS.

I see it all the time.

All the teens, now, where I am, speak like they're always asking you a question.

Like this?

Do you know what I mean?

Do you know what I'm saying, when I speak this?

LOL?

I've been called everything from a social chameleon to a full blown sociopath when I've confessed to this kind of behavior. It makes me feel misunderstood! I just don't know how else to communicate without mirroring. I guess it's why I'm good at sales (I hate sales and no longer work in it)

It works for me and that's all that matters, I guess.

I notice I talk more like my sister when I’m around her. My normal speaking voice is an almost total monotone.

I don't do that very much. It is very frequent among NTs especially married couples, when the adopt a kind of private language. This irritates me a lot, couldn't say why (mostly it appears to me a form of inautenthicity). My sister, for whom I had affection (limited by my ASD condition) used to say prophanities (if angry) when she quarreled with her hub who was all prophanities in his talking. This disturbed me a little though in her case it was not a matter of inautenthicity.
.

I also tend to mirror people's accents and vocal cadences, but not colloquialisms (if I know what they are). What's odd is that I have lived in Louisville, Kentucky for 25 years, and people still ask me where I am from. They comment on how "proper" and well-articulated my speech is, and generally think I am from the northern US or that I am English. I was born in England, we moved when I was about 2, but I already had a pretty extensive vocabulary. We then moved to New York for about 6 months, and I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, so if anything I should sound more like a midwesterner than a northerner. When I lived in St. Louis people also thought I sounded northern or British. My parents are American, and never picked up a British accent, and while my older brother did pick up the accent he lost it fairly quickly after moving back to the 'States. So I'm not sure why I've apparently retained vestiges of the accent. I never affect any accent consciously; it just happens. Just one more thing to make me stick out as different!

I keep doing it and I find it kind of annoying, because I'm waiting for the day when someone will point it out in front of everyone... I tend to do it mostly with accents, but I'm more likely to do it if it's close to mine (an English accent) rather than say, a Scottish accent. However, I did watch a bunch of Youtube videos with a Swedish man in them and I kept adopting some of the accent on certain words! I wish I could stop doing it.

Oh I don't have an accent of my own. I have an East Anglian accent like my parents and the rest of the family, maybe with a little cockney slang thrown into it, but nothing to speak of.