Why do a lot of us have strange accents?

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I've had over twenty people ask me which country I'm from, enquire about the origin of my accent, etc. this year.
I thought I spoke with a normal Australian accent, but apparently not.
Does anyone know why people with Asperger's syndrome often have strange accents?

Vague guess; we don't pick up on the tiny verbal inflections that make up an 'accent' that others simply absorb which 'normalises' the way they talk to the local standard.

I moved from country side to the city when I was a teenager, other students were wondering why I'm not speaking any countryside slang.

I usually have a non-specific North American accent, but occasionally I lapse into something slightly British.

It makes sense though, because I learned English at an American school, but was later forced to follow (unnecessary) lessons in British English.

I speak received pronunciation (Queen's / Oxford / BBC) English, like the BBC World Service. I didn't grow up in Britain, but I don't speak like my parents or my siblings either, who all have regional accents.

Conceptually, I think that if I hear two or more ways of saying something, then I will try to establish the correct one. Often people have no idea who I am talking about with foreign names that are universally mispronounced. (There is a notable anomaly - people are soccer-mad here, and amazingly get all the foreign players names right, even the "J" in Portuguese or Brazilian names).

I sound like The Kinks, when I speak. I hear it every time I say something. I've spoke like that, since I was 4. Another thing is, that I don't shut up. Imagine a high-strung Kinks Fan who can't shut up.

I know what you're feeling. I'm Aussie with strange verbal pronounciation and intonation.
I often have people ask where I'm from and when I say "here" they try clarifying asking when I moved to Australia. Born and bred true blue fair dinkum Aussie sheila mate! Which I can say with a good Aussie accent.
I've been asked if I'm from America, Canada, Ireland, NZ and South Africa (and South Australia - the plum bit of my mongrel accent confuses people).
My theory is - being such a slow language learner in infants school I had a great deal of difficulty picking up on the sounds of vowels and consonants. I loved reading, even though I was and still am a word-by-word reader, and until high school I read each word aloud exactly as I was taught to the best of my limited understanding therefore continuously reinforcing bad habits without any correction from parents or teachers.
I created a new accent all of my own belonging to my own little world.
Apparently, it is a very good radio voice when I don't mumble.

It would make for an interesting study to see if this was a kind of "spin-off" Aspie trait which might be related to difficulties with socialising, since speech is a such a large part of that experience.

In my own experience, I have a slightly English accent even though I was born in Australia and have lived here all my life. I also talk softly (if at all!) and rarely have much confidence in speaking to people, having a tendency to mumble and not know what to say (! !). When I do talk, I make conscious effort to speak clearly to offset this and try to choose my words carefully. Perhaps that's why I sound a little English. That I dislike the sound of my voice doesn't help much. It also doesn't help when people make a point of mentioning it as I become very self-conscious and clam up! Also (this might sound strange)...my tongue doesn't feel right to me LOL!!

It would make for an interesting study to see if this was a kind of "spin-off" Aspie trait which might be related to difficulties with socialising, since speech is a such a large part of that experience.

In my own experience, I have a slightly English accent even though I was born in Australia and have lived here all my life. I also talk softly (if at all!) and rarely have much confidence in speaking to people, having a tendency to mumble and not know what to say (! !). When I do talk, I make conscious effort to speak clearly to offset this and try to choose my words carefully. Perhaps that's why I sound a little English. That I dislike the sound of my voice doesn't help much. It also doesn't help when people make a point of mentioning it as I become very self-conscious and clam up! Also (this might sound strange)...my tongue doesn't feel right to me LOL!!

i am australian and my accent is mocked by many people in average surroundings.

i do not like to socialize with people who i do not know, but there are occasions where i am stuck in a gathering of people who want to hear what i have to say, and when i start to talk they often get supercilious looks on their faces.

i rapidly attract hostile attitudes from people who suspect i am "putting it on" and they think i am trying to be haughty or otherwise disdainful of them.

i think that my "accent" is due to the fact that i never had a role model and never really connected with anyone even as i was learning my native language.

i learned how to pronounce words based upon a few examples that i was taught where people showed me written words, and then said the phonetic equivalent. i got the idea, and then i taught myself how to talk by reading. i did not learn how to talk by example, but by deduction.

i do not sound stunted because i obviously heard various people talk, and i crafted my vocal style not entirely without external influence, but i mainly used my own idea of how words should be pronounced in my learning to speak.

here is an example of how i talk.
i hope other people can also post recordings of their voice too.
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8818556

I was born and raised on the west coast of the US. I didn't socialize very much at all (<an hour/year after age 13). Then I ran away to college on the East coast of the US, where I crawled under the wing of a good teacher who decided not to shove me away. he was jewish (I think probably most jews have an NY accent to some degree no matter where they live), and I learned a lot of how to talk from him. I knew how to talk, but I did not know how to talk like to talk to a barista or a waiter (which involves a kind of lithe sort of chill, nonchalant, sarcasm and really raising your voice), or someone my own age. Talking to him and then talking to more people in the city, my mouth just somehow adopted a lot of it, particularly softer "r"s because they feel better in my mouth.

now i'm back on the west coast and people ask me all the time where i'm from, if i'm from Boston or New York. i've even been asked if i'm from scotland or Ireland because sometimes little Irish-like things come out, somehow, maybe because I had a teacher from Ireland.

I guess that it's because we don't pick up on our local accents, when we're learning to speak and some forgien accents might be more soothing to us.

Mine is from hearing loss and I developed this speech impediant. I have been sounding this way since I was six even though I have been hearing since I was a year and a half. My voice sounded different when I was five years old and before I hardly said a word.

I get asked where am I from. As a child I was teased for how I talked. Lot of people think I am from the east coast and some think I am from Australia. Some think elsewhere or are unsure.

I have no traces of any accent whatsoever when compared to American people who speak English.

This is a really interesting thread.......I have been told that I have an accent, asked where I was from etc., all my life and I don't understand why either.

Maybe it something about certain parts of language (i.e. pragmatics....using language appropriately w other ppl) not coming as naturally to us aspies...........but I still don't quite understand how that results in foreign sounding accent