Could AS be the reason I don't have an accent?

Post Reply New Topic

All my life I've lived in the Deep South. Have been in one particular city about 20 years, off and on, except for college and time in another city to marry hubby.

BUT I DON'T HAVE AN ACCENT!!

My brother does. My mother does. My grandfather does. All my step-siblings do. But I don't.

In fact, people have asked if I'm a Yankee (from the north), when I've never been north in my life.

Could AS have something to do with this?

I really couldn't say, but i do know that my bf, his sister, brother and his mom all do not have an accent. They lived in MI til my bf was in 6th grade. Then they moved to Virginia...the hills, where sometimes you can't even understand them, and they did not pick up any accent. Only one of his brothers picked up the southern accent. I am from CA and moved to NC for 12 years. I picked up a slight southern accent. Now i am in the north and my accent has disappeared. (thank god because people teased me over having the accent!)

Btw, my bf and his family are not on the spectrum. I believe i am. My son is and he did not pick up any southern accent the 9 years he lived in NC.

I guess i would say no then, since i have several different examples? lol!

It's a distinct possibility. Do you voice-mimic animals well? Can you do a French accent? Russian? Japanese? Spanish? Can you pull off the accents so well that you could probably fool someone on the phone?

While it isn't a 100% shared trait (nothing is, really), we do trend towards this ability. You've likely adopted "North American Accent" after recognizing via television/media that this was the more widespread national meme.

-- Vip

It would be interesting to listen to you speak. I'm interested in dialects and love to listen to people from different regions. I loved the difference between this couple I met (in Cancun) where the woman was from South London and the man was from Birmingham.

Sorry to wander off the main topic....

I really couldn't tell you why your dialect sounds Northern. Did you watch a lot of television as a child? Television programs are usually spoken in a Northern dialect. I'm only guessing that if you listened enough to it, that perhaps you could have picked up that dialect rather than your home dialect. I'm only grasping at straws though. That's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

I agree with ViperaAspis. Being able to do various accents is a widely documented autistic characteristic.
(I can do accents quite well myself).

I was born and raised in Houston TX, but I do not talk like a Texan, unless I am talking like Puppetrina...and she has more of a weird fake affected Southern accent....Sometimes I end up talking sorta like her because i am comfortable with her voice...just to get the words out...but my normal speaking voice does not sound that way.
My high school vocal coach said that I sounded like I was from the Northeast...
I have been asked if I was from Canada (mostly cause I say aye alot sometimes)...and also Europe...and then frequently asked where i am from when working in service industry jobs where I am required to speak...Others have tended to observe that I simply have good annunciation....and then there is the thing of unintentionally mimicking people sometimes....
Mostly my speaking voice is very singing-based..and I am sensitive to the sounds of voices and speak in a voice that I can tolerate hearing..most of the time...when not aggravated....

but um..someone is gonna chime in and say that no matter what, if you do speak, you DO have an accent..just not one indigenous to your region...so I will save them the trouble..since I made the mistake once of saying that I didn't have an accent, and was sternly corrected ...

All regions of the USA have an "accent" though not as noticeable as how the natives speak in the South. Even the Northeast has
an accent! It is the way people enunciate their words...not just the inflection in the way one speak. A common word that delineates an accent is the word, "bag." Even people from the same area of the country pronounce it differently.

New York City residents, New England residents and Mid-westerners have a distinct accent just as noticeable as the people in the South. Why there are people who take speaking lessons just so no one can determine what area of the USA they are from...

It takes other people from distant areas to truly indicate to us that each and everyone of us has an accent. It is actually difficult
for each of us to truly know what we sound like as we speak...unless one has a tape recoder. Even then, people do not always believe what they hear on a tape recoder.

In the film, "My Fair Lady" with Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in the lead roles...remember the harsh treatment by Professor
Higgins to get Eliza to speak like a proper lady... without that cockney accent spoken by the lower class?

People ask me if I'm european sometimes. I'm not really sure why. I think its just because people can't place me.
I guess that's because I have somewhat varied pronunciation?

I've lived in lots of places (all in the USA) and I think I have a set, different intonation depending on what the word I'm saying is. I guess whatever place I learned/used the word the most, I sort of attach the dialect from that area to my pronunciation of the word?

Also, my pronunciation changes depending on the sentence. Like I wouldn't say "Come and get them!" I'd say "Come 'n get 'em!" automatically. But I would say, "And those belong to them" exactly like that, each syllable distinct.

I also say "Kittens" in a british-sounding, almost cockney way. Like "Ke'ins"; sort of stumbling over and pretty much skipping the double tt sound. A very soft "t" maybe (almost "Ket'ins"), but not a very audible sound. Sorry that was so specific, It's kind of weird - but it was just pointed out to me a couple days ago.

I think I pick up accents pretty easily and that's why i don't really have a definable one. The same can probably be said for other people with AS that have strange/out-of-place accents. Maybe?
If I catch something on TV and they say "Elephants" in a way I like, maybe I'll say it like that from then on. I'm pretty food at imitating the way people say specific things, but as for emulating an accent throughout an entire sentence - acting like I have a southern accent, for example - I can't do that very well.

If anything, I suppose the accent that stuck with me is a combination of intonations from lotsa different places. I tend to say words as I see them. And I guess I hear them in specific, separately associated accents in my head.

~~~
I guess I'm pretty precise with what I say too - not too many "Um"s or "like"s, even in high school. I say what I mean to say, no filler words really. People notice that that is a bit different too I suppose. But that's sort of unrelated.

I've lived near Houston all my life and not only do I not have a southern accent (I've been up north and people never realize where I'm from and are surprised when I tell them), if someone were to ask me to fake one I'd have a hard time doing so. >< This actually happened a few weeks ago on Skype.

Sometimes I unintentionally do the Southern drawl, like saying way-el instead of well or something like that. It tends to take me off guard.

I do the same thing as Jaejoongfangirl sometimes, and copy how people say things if I like the way it sounds (I do the same with phrases). If I were to bump into someone I'd say soorry instead of sorry.

Had not heard that, but it is interesting. I'm a master voice-mimic, accents, celeb impersonations, etc.

I also grew up in the South and do not have an accent - though I can adopt several at will - the Southern accent varies widely from state to state. I do however recall feeling as a child that I definitely wanted to avoid the accent because it was always portrayed in the media as the voice of ignorance.

Your username gave me the impression that you are from Ireland.

I've got a habit of using several accented words in a fairly non accented speech. Such as y'all and ain't, but also bloody hell and lou. I can adopt a southern or british accent rather easily, though I can't do much else. I did try to pick up the jamaican accent from a friend, but I kept mixing it with a british one. Which annoys me, because I really like that accent and would love to be able to talk like that all the time.

Some words though really don't lend themselves well to accents. I remember my jamaican friend trying to say certain chemical names and it was hilarious sounding.

Everyone has an accent. I have one, people here have one because if they go east or south or to Australia, people will think they have an accent. But with me, I sound like I come from the east even though I have never been out there. The majority say I sound like I come from the east.


But with aspies, they tend to sound like they come from somewhere else. But with me, it could be due to having hearing losss from then I was little. I have sounded this way since I was six. Everyone says it's both but I think it's just from being deaf. I sound different than my whole family.

I don't seem to have an local accent, people usually guess wrongly when asked where do they think I'm from (only once did a person get the answer right out of many many people).

I have been told I sound like I come from
Eastern US, a cross between a NY accent
and a SW British accent, as if from Brighton
or Saltdean.

When I listen to Paul Pimsleur language
CDs I am told that whichever language
I am listening to I copuy it very well.

Having AS does not mean you don't have an accent.

My grandmother has an accent{Southern}. My uncle has one. {Southern} My mom has one.
{Central American dialect, although many people think she is from Mexico!
People from Central and South America do NOT have the same accent}

However, my sister does NOT nor do I.

I don't mean to brag, but I can adopt a "Southern accent" and an "English accent" to fit in various social settings.
I can also do a reasonable "Irish accent" from watching Shrek too many times!

I speak in a robotic, breathy tone of voice, which gives people the impression
I am from the American Mid-West, which I am not, being a native of Portland.

Also, I am scared to do the "Southern accent thing"
when my grandma, uncle , or both visit because
it would feel as if I was making fun of them...