Autism and accents.

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I have read somewhere that Autistic people can have strange accents. I am not British, though I have had multiple people mistake me for one. Have you ever experienced something like this?

My accent is New York.

It might have been more “robotic” when I was younger.

I grew up in New York City, but talk more like my parents, who grew up in Pennsylvania and Iowa.

(I vaguely recall reading somewhere that talking like one's parents, rather than talking like the other kids at one's school, is common among autistic people.)

A lot of people think that I'm British and there are also a lot of people who ask if I'm German or Austrian. I guess I sound a combination of both.

I was told I sound like a foreigner on multiple occasions but wouldn't specify. Nowadays people tend to assume I am from Ukraine because a lot of them moved to Poland recently.
I speak Polish (I'm native speaker) and my grammar is really good but the melody and pronunciation sounds off, especially if I am overwhelmed or stressed. I am also often searching for the right word.
Knowing 3 other languages (English, Japanese and German) also makes it odd because I might use the pronunciation from a different language accidentally. Or say a foreign word intentionally - because I can't remember the Polish one.

This is common. People think I am putting on some weird act.

I am a Southerner and have a Southern accent (not a drawly lazy one but still) and I tend to speak sometimes, especially when passionate about something, with what can only be described as a "Transatlantic" or "Received English" accent. It's not been heard much since the early 1900s--it's the way people used to have to talk for distance telephony, and the way they had to speak when making recordings on early technology.

When I'm trying to be precise and not upset people I end up modulating into something more like a faintly British accent. It's weird.

I've always been one to adapt an accent to those around me. Southern accent when I'm in the South, Canadian accent when I'm in Canada, Scottish accent when in Scotland, and a New York accent when I'm in New York. The accents come and go as I enter and leave those areas. Maybe not a full blown accent, but at least a notable inflection, away from my normal voice and toward that area's specific accent. Even my use of words can change a bit (saying "Cheers" instead of "thanks" when in the UK, saying "y'all" instead of "you" when in North Carolina as examples).

It seems I naturally mimic what I hear from those around me, rather than keep a constant way of speaking. It's natural for me, probably something related to my ASD, but seemingly a rare thing for anyone to do. I recall when I was very young, I found many other people more interesting than myself, so in wanting to be more interesting, I talked like those others who seemed more interesting. This would even happen when I'd watch TV shows or listen to sports on the radio, I'd start talking with an accent similar to one of the characters or commentators during the program and shortly thereafter, then resume my natural way of speaking the next day.

I also have a tendency to mimic accents - after listening to someone who has an accent I'll just start unconsciously talking the same way. I've had people assume I'm from other states, or ask me what accent I have, even when I think I'm talking normally. When I was young I did a British accent a lot, and occasionally still lapse into it.

My accent is typical to the region although some of my family members have a more country-sounding accent. I tend to be more proper in how I say things than the people I grew up with. I think that’s because I read a lot.

When I was a young teen, a friend said that she felt like she needed to use a dictionary when conversing with me.

Considering the source, that probably isn’t saying a whole lot...

Some people think I talk strange and people sometimes mistake me for someone from the UK or elsewhere as I don't have a traditional South African English accent. Occasionally people don't "get" my intonation when I say certain words. I sound strange to my own ears when I play a video of myself.

Unlike my relatives, I never lost my West Indian accent when I came to the US, and I've been here for 46 years. I attribute that to poor assimilation with the "new world." If, all along, it was an autistic thing, that's news to me.