'Strange' Voices/Accents?

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My accent is typical Home Counties, but my dialect is a mixture of archaisms, technical language and poetical musings.

I got Australian a lot when I lived in England. Could be your rising intonation that is common to Australian / Geordie / Northern Ireland accents.

I get comments that my accent is strange. I lived in Northern Ireland until I was 21, I would get called posh because I didn't use much slang and was fairly articulate. After that I lived in England for 17 years and tried to change my accent when people made fun of it. It didn't work and I just sounded weird. Now I'm really sensitive about any comments about my accent

An awful lot of Northern Irish people settled in Liverpool, as I'm sure you know, so maybe there is an element of that somewhere in the Liverpool accent.

My dads family has Dutchy accents. I don't. Some people say I sound different from them if we go out in public.

I have a peculiar voice myself. I was born and raised in Florida, where I lived in 2005. My mother was from Quebec and my father was from Boston, Massachusetts. I had neither an accent akin to that spoken by the locals where I grew up, nor my mother or father. I essentially have my own idiosyncratic accent of one. Some have asked me if I am German even though I cannot speak the language, never visited there nor have any German ancestry.

Is it possible, even likely, that Aspies are less likely to have their speech patterns fashioned from their environment than neurotypicals? It seems no matter where I am, I am essentially an alien in that environment.

Well, according to those who questioned me as a child and adolescent, many confused my accent for that of a German. I also have a bit of a "childish voice" and pronounced r's as w's and 'sh' as 's' until early adolescence. Fortunately, speech therapy rectified that. However, I was never able to make my voice sound more mature nor American or Canadian.

Well, my voice sounds normal to me as well. When I speak, I hear myself as speaking in a mature voice without any accent. However, when I playback my voice on a tape, my voice sounds a bit childish and neither American nor Canadian in nature. I remember as a child and as an adolescent always being asked by my fellow classmates, "What country are you from?" Other times, they would be less kind and say "Hey! Learn how to speak, [insert epithet here]!"

I pronounce alcohol as al-coo-hol or al-ker-hol. I pronounce foreign as fur-rinn. The fur is pronounced like a German would, with a guteral R.

I also have a problem with voice projection. I tend to talk as if addressing a multitude. A few times, a waitress in a restaurant inquired as to whether I was hearing impaired as my loud voice was mistaken for being hard of hearing.

Interesting topic! I'm from Baltimore and there IS a unique Baltimore accent which I and my father seem to have yet my mom and brothers don't. My dad is very much like me- possibly borderline Aspie. My mom and brothers are NT.

Hmm...

I have trouble with the "a" sound, or at least I'm given trouble over it. Like I put a lot of stress on it, but I'm not trying to, nor, once again, can I really hear it. To say "alcohol", it tends to catch people's attention the most. Plus between "al" and "co" it's best described as a "drop and click" in my throat that sounds abnormal to others. I know I have a little trouble there. I mean, I notice it the more I say it, and with repetition it all starts to blur and I give up. Meh.

Also, with "u" it can sound like an "a", as in "hurry up". The kids back in elementary brought this to my attention first. (It also seems to imply that I could be a little on the "dictatorial" side back then!)

I haven't tried gauging this via recordings, but then I hate being recorded and my speech overall is altered knowing that I'm being recorded. To make myself more comfortable (with past video recordings), I am prone to falling into a southern accent!



I usually have the opposite problem - my voice doesn't project enough. Occasionally I get accused of being too loud. Poor modulation.

Me too. All the time in school when I had to give speeches, I had to consciously tell myself speak louder because however loud I thought I sounded wasn't loud enough.

I apparently have quite a high speaking voice, and I think my intonation makes me sound young - I never developed the sophisticated intonation that English women normally develop as they move into adulthood. I talk rather fast and I can stumble over words unless I carefully monitor how I'm speaking. As for my accent, it's a southern English accent. We moved a lot when I was a kid, and my sisters developed estuary accents, but I never did - my accent remained 'posh'. However, I lived in Canada for a while in my early twenties, and certain parts of my accent simply weren't understood, so I adapted it a bit so that I could be understood. And ever since then, my accent has never been the same. I returned to England and my accent went mostly back to what it was, but still has traces of Canadian. So it's a hybrid accent.

I am told over and over I sound Australian/ Northern Ireland/ English. I dont hear it. I do hate my voice when I hear it.

I have been tolded by people that i have an Aussie accent despite im born in London raised in Essex and now live in London also im Indian too.

I can understand your travails, MechAnime.

I have a bit of problem with my vowels as well. I also have a penchant for not pronouncing the letter 'H'.

When frazzled, my speech deteriorates as I have less thought to devote to my elocution. I will sometimes pronounce hurry up as 'hairy yup', with a y attached before the letter 'U'.

Well, I am a man, born and raised in the United States and now living in Canada. That said, my voice never fully matured either. My voice still sounds childlike (and not like a 28-year-old man) and when speaking on the phone, I am often called "Ma'am" by the other party or am asked to "speak to David (that's me!), please" thinking I am someone else.