Your speaking voice

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I've been told by a number of people on a number of different occasions that I have an odd speaking voice. Not only that, but that it seems to change depending on whom I am speaking with or what I am talking about. Change in speed, rhythm, accent. Apparently, I mimic what I perceive to be the common mode of speaking when in social situations. So if I'm around people who come from a Southern background, I notice myself speaking with more of a drawl. If I'm around family from New England or California, I use more of the particulars of those kinds of speech. When I've been teaching in some of the poor, urban schools, I find myself talking a bit like the ghetto kids there. I've noticed this happening for a long time but I'm not always objective about it. It never even seemed all that strange to me.

Now, in thinking about this in terms of AS, I've read that this behavior is a clear symptom... using stock phrases and imitating the speech of others. It almost seems like I have no defined speaking voice of my own. Instead, I've synthesized a conglomeration of verbal patterns from TV, movies and radio, people I've met, etc.

Can anyone relate to this? What do you think this is about?
I'd appreciate your perspectives.

I tend to mimic accents that I hear on TV. Not just outloud but in my head. Like if I'm watching a period piece I'll spend the rest of the night thinking in that periods style of speaking.

Just yesterday on the radio I only heard a snippet of a welsh comedian, and immediately I started speaking with a welsh accent. I was able to stop it though as I reconised what I was doing immediately. Which was lucky as I can't always tell that I'm doing it. And my dad finds it annoying and gets snappy when I do it.

My speaking voice is deep and scary. I'm pretty good at mimicking accents so a lot of times I mimic them for fun, I don't think I ever do it unintentionally though. I do sometimes think to myself in an English accent though, just because I prefer that accent over my American one.

Danielismyname posted this list not long ago from Hans Asperger's original "Summary of Autistic Psychopathy". The voice he describes is as follows:

Abnormal Speech
* The voice is soft and far away.
* The voice sounds refined and nasal.
* The voice is too shrill and ear-splitting.
* Has sing-song voice.
* The voice does not go down at the end of a sentence.
* The speech sounds like exaggerated verse-speaking.

My voice is:

-- Soft and far away (faint, as if I'm not taking and expelling enough air)
-- My voice sounds refined and nasal (people think I talk like a snob)
-- My voice goes up at the end of my sentences some of the time, never goes down at the end of sentences
-- I have formal, stilted speech, like I'm speaking in verses (however, I can speak more normally when I think about what I'm saying so I've mostly trained myself out of this).

My dreadful voice plays into the misinterpretation & wrong impressions people form about me, that I'm a childlike, passive and dumb Asian sex object.

yes...the mimicry can be related to social echolalia. the voice presentations are now termed "odd prosody' in some of the differing diagnositc criteria that are around. I know it has expanded out since Asperger's initial reports on it. The point being i think, that the rythms and the inflections are ot of "the norm." However, some people with AS ALSO have a strange ability to parrot or mimic in the manner you describe. IT's kind of cool if you ask me.

I also have an uncanny ability for mimicry and i learned fairly early on to rely on a kind of social echolalia (including alterations in vocal presentations and pronunciations) in order to get by in various settings. however, if i do a vodcast or a you tube recording of myself monologuing, you tend to get a low and fairly constant voice, that is somewhat flat and serious. I can mimic all sorts of voices and i have definitely used this as a tool to try to fit in particularly when younger. (might have worked briefly but int he end only added fuel to the proverbial fire.) i have been told you can tell who i am talking to on the telephone by the particular voice i am using. it is not conscious at all. i had no idea i did it or HOW pronounced it was until it was pointed out.

the mimicry of accents is another facet of it. I have a little theory - and it is just that - a theory.....NOt base on any research whatsoever. BUt i think the mimicry stuff is related to heightened sensory issues....as if the increased sensory issues allow one to fuse a little with the sounds around them and then they seep into one's own way of being. (as BAstetsEye describes re the Welsh accent.)

Whenever I'm at school, people call me "gay" because of the way I talk. It's frustrating, because I'm not gay, and I talk completely normally when I don't have such tremendous social pressure around me. I think my voice changes with levels of anxiety.

I talk extremely loud and fast, but I never notice. People always have to tell me to quiet down because I am apparently distracting....

I'm the same my parents are constantly telling me that I talk too loud. But then I have hearing problems so how much is hearing and how much is AS.

I do know I'm less aware of how loud I'm talking when I'm talking about one of my obsessions.

In point 4 of Gillberg's criteria for the diagnostic assessment of Asperger's:

Speech and language problems (at least three of the following)
(a) delayed development
(b) superficially perfect expressive language
(c) formal, pedantic language
(d) odd prosody, peculiar voice characteristics
(e) impairment of comprehension including misinterpretations of literal/implied meanings

I have some of the above characteristics, but the most noticeable one might be my odd prosody, in fact I have an almost complete lack of prosody most of the time; my tone of voice is flat and monotonous. Even though I've lived here in Cape Town my whole life people still ask me where I come from. One fellow South African even asked me, in all seriousness, if I was from Russia.

Besides that, I do sometimes mimic accents, the most distinctive accent that I unintentionally mimic is that of my father, when I spend time with him I tend to talk like him for an hour afterwards.

Oh and I forgot to mention, my mom always says I talk like an 80 year old. She thinks I have odd vocabulary...

I have 3 different voices thaat I use on a regular basis: The voice I most commonly assocaite with myself, I higher pitched voice that I think in and only speak in when I am excited or happy, and a lower pitched voice for when I'm down or very relaxed. The higher pitched voice is the voice I generally think in, although I am still a very visual thinker.

I have several different voices too...my most "normal" sounding voice, I am only able to use with people i am most comfortable with....
Sometimes when having to talk to deal with business people...because I help run a business, my voice will go very low and formal sounding..and I don't feel like myself when I talk like that...
Then I have my high sing-song voice..and several variations of that...that I sorta think in...Because I am always singing in my mind or out loud and I feel more comfortable with singing than I do with talking..

and then I have this sorta odd halting voice that I use when I have to string more than two sentences together as in when explaining something to someone who I am not so comfortable with and I have to work to piece the sentences together without stammering...

...and then I will often mimic people I am talking to also

here is an example of my most 'everyday" sounding voice...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONdH2RDKmRc[/youtube]

I have a slight case of the echolalia...

My ASish friend is in the back seat..you might hear a bit of his unsusal voice too,,

I do the same accent thing as the OP. English is not my first language and when I first came to the UK as a teen I didn't say as much as one word in a few months, although I knew all the grammar and had a vast vocabulary. I only started speaking after I've listened to the language enough to be confident in not making too many noticeable mistakes.

for me speaking English is like playing an audio file. that's why I "catch" accents of other people, especially the ones I spend a lot of time with. I wouldn't use a word that I hadn't heard someone say before, even if I know it well, know theoretically how it's supposed to sound and use it in my writing. that's because the audio file is not there to be played out.

certain words got so imprinted in my brain that I have to pronounce them in a certain accent, even if at the moment I'm using a different accent (probably the accent of the person I am talking to), for example: cork. when I think of a wine cork, I have to pronounce it with British accent, because I had heard this word extensively in the restaurant I worked in. but I also lived with a few flatmates from Cork, Ireland, so whenever I talk about Cork in Ireland I have to pronounce it with Cork accent, otherwise my mind will picture it as a wine cork.

I could give you loads of examples like that but I think you get my point ;p

as to my normal speaking voice- I speak very fast, and with many words "overlapping" if you know what I mean. when I don't care about the impression I'm making, for example when talking to my dog I might mix up two or more languages, it just comes out like that, as well as words that don't exist and that my mind if forming (usually it's overlapping words that I wanted to say). it often sounds like unintelligible murmur.

interesting thing- when I read out loud, I have no clue what it all means. I put a lot of effort into correct pronunciation and because of that what comes out of my mouth sounds very flat, with hardly any intonation at all. and because it sounds so mechanic, other people can hardly listen to it at all. that's why I never got asked to read stuff out loud at school- not only did other people not get it, I had no clue whatsoever what I was talking about.

I do have problems modulating the pitch, volume and inflection of my voice. I am very nasal - I sound a good bit like Neil Young. I also use a much larger working vocabulary than most people, although I am aware of this and do my best to taylor it to the occasion. The vast majority of my speech consists of stringing together pieces of stock phrases (originating either from others, or self-composed when I am alone). I also used to have a big problem with upspeak, but trained myself to make the ends of my sentences go down. I frequently get accused of being European, although I am not entirely sure what prompts these "accusations."

I speak softly. If I need to talk with a teacher we have to talk in their office or the hallway so they can hear me (no vioces to compete with). I also talk straight...no change in pitch. And I have been teased about my formality. But English teachers love it! I tend to speak as if I am trying to impress the greatest English teacher in the world...completely correct grammar, etc.

Do you say "Cohrk bhoy!" or "Cohrk Liyke!" I love the Cork accent.

I lived in Jerusalem for seven months this year and many people commented that I didn't have an Irish accent. My voice is naturally monotone and that's a shame because tone is such an important part of communication. When I start to tell a story - and I can be a good story teller, under the right environmental conditions - I see peoples eye's dim after a few seconds because of the tone of my voice.

I try to adjust it, but it's rarely the right tone for the right situation.