Autism and accent

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I'm ASD (Asperger's) and I've always had a distinctive acccent that didn't come from any place I've lived before; in a way I think it might be some kind of subconscious expression of the type of person I want to seem like? I'm not faking it, its just how my voice wants to come out.

Anyone else?

idk, ive just mixed different kinds of accents, and whenever i meet someone with a strong accent i accidentaly copy their?? i also speak very fast so people always ask me what i was saying

I was born and raised in NYC. I have a NYC accent.

Where are you from, GibbieGal?

Especially if people go away go college (in the US,) I find that their accent tends to "neurtralize" toward General American--rather than NYC, Boston, Southern, etc. It's because they are seeking a "lingua franca" in a way--they do not want to be teased about their accent.

I know some people on the spectrum are known for being monotone.

My accent has been at various times described as "posh", "cut-glass" or "received pronounciation". This isn't in keeping with my family's way of speaking and certainly wasn't fashionable when I was at school - In those days most people affected a "Sarf" London accent to try and appear cool. I've never deliberately tried to talk posh and in fact I have great difficulty trying to modify my voice. I wonder if I picked up my vocal style from television presenters I liked who used "BBC English" or from speaking in the manner of things that I had read.

My voice has never been an advantage to me - many people instantly think I'm posh and therefore rich and therefore dislike me. Other people who may be interested when they think I'm posh and rich are disappointed when they discover I'm not and think that I'm a fraud.

Isn't Estuary English a compromise between Received Pronunciation and "low-class" accents.

Is "Sarf" the same as Cockney?

How are "Chavs" supposed to speak.

I'm an American, it should be noted.

I am from the New England area, which is notorious for bad accents. Mine is a little worse than others, though. I am often mistaken by people I don't know well as being a Brooklyn or Long Island native, which I am not.

Also, I can do a pretty good British accent as well as speak in a few other languages, as well as read in many more. I too adopt the accents and sometimes languages of people I am speaking with.

For example, if someone I talk to natively speaks Spanish, I will adopt a Spanish accent while talking to them, even if we are both speaking English. I could probably be described as multidialectal and multilingual, but when I'm in regular conversation with relatives, I switch around a lot, but usually sound like I belong in a tri state area gang.

I don't live in Boston or Providence, by the way. But, I spend a lot of time in those cities so my accent is somewhat close to that and very thick, but a little stronger and leaning more towards a NYC accent, although I can only dream of going there.

I have been described as monotone too. In fact, when I was evaluated by an institution, they described it as "limited tonal fluctuation." Curse them, haha. If only they knew I can change my voice at will. Oh, well. It's my secret.

Personally, I don't think accent has much to do with autism.

You sound intriguing, Girl w/Aspergers!

I don't have your flexibility. I've been married to a Trinidadian lady for 19 years; I still can't imitate the Trini accent.

My accent has been fairly malleable throughout my life, I think. I grew up in a London area that had (interestingly) a mix of both pretty posh people right on down to Cockney people, so I heard every variation on the scale of high class to low class English accents, and I remember well that my own accent could changed between them depending on who it was I was talking to. At one point when my best friends were a pair of sister with very pronounced Cockney/East End accents, I sounded like that too for a few years!

Eventually I lost that and my accent "evened-out" into something a bit posher, not deliberately, just finding its level.

All that got blown out of the water when I emigrated to the US! Surrounded by American voices, within a few years the odd syllable was definitely changing. Most of the influence and change was totally unconscious, because when you spend twenty years on one place, you truly do just lose your old sound, surrounded by a new sound.

Other bits of the change were conscious on my part -- try ordering "A glass of water" in a London accent in the middle of the Southwest where a busy waitperson just isn't expecting that odd sound.

So for things like that I adopted the local sounds, and life really does go more smoothly when you find yourself dealing with moments like that on a daily basis for the foreseeable future -- which turned out to be all my adult life. Making it be that I'm "stuck" like that now, hahah! I returned to London but I think my accent is now forever hybridized after so very long in another country.

But I'm uncomfortable about it now. I try to blend in and stay under the radar (of teasing and such) by trying to adopt a London accent again, but that's what it's become, adopting, as my "natural" accent has genuinely changed and is no longer the one I spoke before emigrating. I actually feel phony doing the London accent now, but anything for a quiet life. When I get home, speak to my cat, speak to animals in general, or when I am with only someone I feel comfortable with, my hybrid accent comes out and I sound a lot more like my adopted U.S. homeland again. It's a very odd situation and I don't love the split nature of it, to be honest.

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I've been told I don't really have an accent reflective of where I live. I've also been told that one of the giveaways about me is my monotone voice.

I kind of imitate other people's voices without wanting to. Since it's so subtle I doubt most people notice. Even though I've lived in the same place my whole life I have a very neutral North American accent that no one can place. I sometimes have a slight Spanish accent, but I try to avoid it.

I have the usual accent of the region where I was raised, but I sometimes tend to speak too fast and softly and that makes harder for other people to understand me. It's like if I was talking under a blanket.
When I'm aware that I'm doing that I immediatly correct it, but sometimes I have to be told that I'm talking in "blrblrblrblrbrrrrfblll-ese" or else I won't notice!

Is your icon Ren of Ren and Stimpy?

I can't really hear my own accent, I think my speech can come off as pretty odd so I imagine my accent is as well. I dunno.