Strange accents as a youth?

Post Reply New Topic

I spoke as if I were from Texas when I was seven; now I sound as if I'm not even from America, according to some teachers.

Everyone says I have an accent that they can't place. I'm always getting asked what country I'm from as a result, and no one believes me when I say "USA."

Every now and then there are even people who can't understand some of what I say.

My mildly autistic son had such a speech problem that the school assigned him speech therapy for many years. Yet he could read quite well to himself and was good at math, as well. He just couldn't talk well and had a hard time understanding social contexts from stories. For example, a story might say "When Bob heard that, he jumped up and clapped his hands," and then someone would ask him, "Was Bob happy?" and he'd just completely melt down and stop functioning. When I'd gently work to get to the bottom of it, I'd discover that his problem was that he couldn't tell one way or another. The story didn't say about Bob's internal feelings and Lee wasn't willing or able to figure out from actions what _might_ be a valid emotion to imagine as present. In speaking, most folks couldn't understand him and had to have him repeat over and over before "getting it." No idea where that came from, since the examples around him were just fine so far as I know. It was a combination of these problems and some others that got him assessed and then placed in a self-contained class. Yet I had no problem teaching him 1st year calculus while we walked to school together, when he was 13-14. Some things he readily could work on. These days I often find myself spread out on the living room floor with pages of mathematics we go over, discussing orbital mechanics or some physics problem we might solve in a new way. And he has gradually overcome his speech problem. He is still enough disabled that the state has placed him on disability and he is receiving SSI. But he is pretty good at some things. Social stuff and some kinds of sounds around him remain a terrible struggle, though.

Jon

me too. Recently I've been trying to sound more normal - the results are mixed at best

I've almost always read aloud to myself in a British accent, and people tell me I sound like I'm from the East coast sometimes when I talk. I think I sound like I'm from Wisconsin, but whatever. I don't always pronounce words the same way consistently anyway.

too much Monty Python as a yute. I don't get much chance to do accents, but apparently have a Texas accent (not the Ross Perot Texarkana one, but a little more subtle...

I don't know if this is cuz I'm Korean (I'm born in Canada though...), but I tend to have this slight "accent" where I put a lot of stress on my consonants.

I was born into a family of very Canadian people, who sound as plainly Canadian/American, as most of the people on North American television. I've spoken with a Cockney accent, my whole natural speaking life. I've never done this on purpose, either. There was one point, when my dad wanted me to sound like the bimbos, at the school that he cleaned. I'm glad that the forces of nature kept his wish, from coming true.

I've been "accused" of being Canadian. One-winged-Angel says i have a strange accent. When I've watched Canadian TV I do pronounce most words the same. as in Sohrry instead of sawrry.(sorry)

apparently i used to speak like a Londoner as a kid, and also a Geordie for a while though the Geordie thing was something i picked up of a friend.

whats a Geordie? excuse me for looking stupid.

Geordie is both the name of the people who speak it and the name of the dialect commonly spoken around the Newcastle area in northern England.

I i am Scottish was born in Edinburgh but have lived in York for nearly a decade and i still have a strong Scottish accent which most people are surprised the amount of time i have spent living in England.