asperger's and accents

Post Reply New Topic

Great question.

I am French-Canadian and fluently bilingual in both French and English.

Talking on the phone:

Francophones think I have an accent when I speak French but can`t say what it is.

Anglophones think I have an accent when I speak English, sometimes they will guess that I am French-Canadian (helps if they know my name) but I will usually get the odd conclusion that I am Jamaican.

Jamaican? Wow, I wish!

In answer to first post, some aspies are known for forming strange accents.

I found this out as my daughter was diagnosed, I was looking at material in regards to Aspergers again (as I'm AS), and I came across this little titbit; that sometimes strange accents just come from nowhere.

We always wondered what it was all about, and when we moved up country to the North (of England), her accent went really strange, not like ours and not like everyone else's up North.

Just Google it.

People mostly just say I talk fast. Sometimes I *do* stumble on my words, kind of like my brain is thinking too fast for my mouth, but most of the time as far as I can tell I sound like I'm talking the same speed as everyone else.

When I was little my family also used to make fun of the way I say 'costume' and I'm still not sure why, but to this day I avoid that word as much as possible.

I get asked all the time what country I am from and when say "I'm from the U.S., why?", people often tell me "Oh, I though I heard an accent." I don't know if it's related to AS, but it happens often.

I don't get told that I have an unusual accent, but I do get told that I have a distinctive voice, or when I'm on the telephone that I have a beautiful voice or a "good phone voice".

I also have a tendency to pick up accents easily and to chage my speech patterns depending on whom I'm talking to. I don't think it has anything to do with deference, but rather with communication. Someone who speaks with a more casual accent is not going to understand me if I use a plethora of polysyllabic vocabulary (a lot of big words ), and someone who is older and more educated is not going to understand me if I use a lot of slang.

I think I have an accent that comes from tv characters all mixed up. But, I do change my tone depending on who I am talking to.

Yes, I seen this somewhere as well. I read that Aspies often are found to adopt the phonics of those around them. So if you are in a liguisticly diverse place I could see this causing a mixture of accents to mesh togather creating a unique tone or accent. This theory may explain why some of us have an odd accent and the rest dont.

Then again those of us from large cities, where many people from around the world would be gathered, should then be more likely to have an accent, while those of us, like me, from a small town thats not so ethinically diverse should be less likely. Albeit I moved a lot as a child so maybe Im not the best example.

Point is, to me, this theory doesnt seem to pan out based on where the respondants in this thread are from, and who admits to having a "unique" accent. Just my thoughts on it, though.

an accent or a lisp?

How interesting, When I stay for a long time in India I come back with an Indian accent in my English, I also noticed that when speaking to americans I adapt to their drawl and as a Flemish boy of 16 I'd go to Holland and speak Dutch and hated the Flemish dialect when back in my country. And is not an aspie trait?

I have always spoken superfast, biting off half of my words, because in my region and family everyone spoke fast, also because I wanted to say a thing before they cut me off. But I also mumble sometimes.

I first heard my fast speech through communication therapy when I was 18 on a tape recorder, I was surprised and it took me long while before I liked or got used to my voice. I still don't like too much listening to my recorded singing

Last edited by Loborojo on 28 Aug 2008, 11:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Jees, I've learned soooh much about myself since coming here.

I guess it's coming home.

I don't know what my accent is. It's certainly got a mixture of influences, and I would defy anyone to define it exactly.

It never occurred to me that this could be an aspie thing.

I also certainly change my speech, unconsciously, depending on who I'm around - but don't all people do this? My mother does it and she's certainly not an aspie by any stretch of the imagination.

I speak with no accent. People say I speak weird for an Afro-American.

There's no such thing as "no accent". Everyone has an accent.

You just speak with an accent that is perceived as "neutral" by most Americans, like the accent used by (most) news people on network TV.

I live in a region of Colombia where the local accent is disgusting to me. Here people omit consonants, don't know how to pronounce a diphtongue, and fuse words together. I've always been careful to pronounce each word correctly (and Spanish has this special thing about spelling that helps you figure out exactly how each word should be read) that makes some people wonder where I'm from. Actually, my family comes from the mountainous region of Colombia, where my peculiar accent would go unnoticed and even pass for standard, but here I stand out too easily. However, I feel proud of my pronounciation. I'd rather let myself be burned alive than skip an "s" at the end of a plural.

I'm clearly more posh than my parents, and occasionally speak in accents/an accent that I am unaware of that has been described as American and Eastern European.

yes, i have this trait! interesting.