asperger's and accents

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Whoopi Goldberg refuses the label Afro-American because it would imply she isn't American or wasn't born there she said. She is born there so she uses the name American of whcih she is proud, stop the labelling and political correctnes labels.

I have two accents... When I am in normal conversation, I have a Cosmopolitan American accent (The accent of most newspeople on TV). When I am emotional, I sound like a stereotypical New Yorker (Like Joe Pesci or Archie Bunker)

I have a fairly unplaceable English accent, like "BBC English", but vary intonation and vocabulary depending upon circumstance and intention. It can go from very cold to very warm, smart to simple.

Another one of those "I do that" moments. I pick up the accent and the rhythms of speech of whoever I'm speaking to, as if I'm not really anchored in the accents of where I grew up (edge of Liverpool) or where I've been living as an adult (mostly in the English Midlands). If someone has a strong accent I have to struggle not to sound too much like them when I reply because I know they will think I am taking the Mickey out of them.

I have a mix between a neutral and a southern accent, having lived in both Indiana and Texas. Although for some reason, a lot of people think I'm from Florida, which I've never even been to. Ironically, however, even with the slight southern accent, my mom says I still enunciate my words very well. But that could be because I went to speech school when I was little.

I can emulate accents around me - if I want to. But mostly I speak very clearly, deliberately, and pronounce every syllable. My daughter thinks I sound like Joan Cusack. She narrates that adorable show, "Peep and the Big Wide World" and is from Chicago - which is kind of the baseline for American accents.

I try very hard not to pick up on the Southern accent I hear every day - unless its in my best interest. Also, I had to go through voice coaching when I was in college to get rid of a valley girl accent.

So - to everyone I know - I probably sound a little like Mr. Rogers but with a much, much larger vocabulary and a much fouler mouth.

For me, when it comes to the southern accent, since it's slight, a *lot* of people around here think it's cute. For some reason, a lof of people in the area seem to have a fascination with all things Texas. But my accent is definitely more neutral than southern, which is just the way I like it. I can also emulate accents as well. Heck, when I was in the UK for two weeks, I came back with a British accent! Lucky for me, I lost it pretty quickly. lol

Texas is WAY cuter than a Georgia accent. Much rounder...not nasal. Plus Texans are so damned funny and "out there" - its just FUN listening to them talk.

Its funny - out of all the American accents - a hard core Indianan is the only one that stops me dead in my tracks. I used to work for a company based out of Indianapolis and I'll be damned if I had the hardest time understanding them on the phone.

The CEO would say things like "ken" for "can" or "pin" for "pen"...or something like that. Maybe you can do it better. Anywhere - there's a weird thing going on with with the I's and E's I think. David Letterman does it - but its nowhere as noticible as with the hardcore country Hoosiers.

Teyyyy-xas!



Don't meyyy-as with Teyyy-xas.

I have a mix of "no accent" and my local accent

When it comes to Hoosiers, they definitely say things different than most people. There's such a variety of accents in Indianapolis- accents from the north, like Chicago, and then accents from places like Kentucky. It's been said that this is the most southern-acting northern state there is and I'm not surprised. And yeah, I do hear a lot of people mixing up pen and pin. To me, there's definitely a difference. A lot of Hoosiers also say "warsh" instead of wash, and "warter" instead of water. I don't want warty water! Ew! lol

And lolz for Sandy. I know other Texans that live here, and back when we were all younger, we would actually get very mad about her. I remember one person was like, "Why don't you guys like her? She likes Texas!" And we were like "She's being a stereotypical Texan! We're not all like that!" lol Oh, the lengths we'll all go to to defend our home state. Every Texan is proud of Texas.

Another Edinburgh person in this thread.

I have the odd voice prosody thing too, and it does bear some relation to AS. It's only a minority of Aspies who have a distinct voice prosody, or have an accent different to where they are from, mind you.

It's often said Aspies can have a more formal voice register. No-one has ever said my accent is upper-class. If anything it has been described as "broad" and "country". Vocabulary wise, in my word usage and lexical choices, I would definitely seem formal though.

As for my different accent, 9 out of 10 people say they think it's an Inverness accent. Which is a city I have no connection with. But that seems to be the accent I have. Even Inverness people have said so.

Loborojo: I actually try not to use the term African-American to describe myself, for the same reasons that Whoopi Goldberg mentioned and other reasons. I was merely trying to relate how others perceived my accent and how they described it.

I don't believe in political correctness. Although, I do think everyone labels something/ someone whether consciously or not. I won't be hypocritical and say that I don't label things. I try not to immediately do so. And I try to be mindful of when, how, and why I apply labels. But labels can be useful sometimes. And I am aware that labels are to some degree always superficial, and do not fully describe anything, and exist for matters of convenience.

I thought I was the only one who noticed the difference between pen and pin. There is a difference.

Ya know - I have my doubts she's even from Texas. A little too shrill - more like L.A. (Lower Alabama). Dang poser!

I remember this one time I was playing golf right outside Dallas with a bunch of co-workers from around the country. We passed a house on the course with a super tall flag-pole with a giant Texas flag on it - waving proudly in the wind.

One of our co-workers - from New Jersey - asked why someone had a Puerto Rican flag flying in their yard. (In her cute, funny "Joisey" accent!) I thought the local guy in our foursome was going to kill her with his 5 iron. He was NOT amused. Kind of scary, actually - which is why I remember it all these years. He calmed down after the rest of gave her a merciless verbal beating. Fortunately, she had that famous NJ sense of humor and just kind of laughed about it and thought he was crazy.
Ah, fuggedaboutit!! !

But she definitely learned - you DON'T mess with Texas!

Yeah, I say Sandy could definitely pass for lower Alabama. I don't think I've ever heard such a thick Texas accent! I know where I grew up in Houston, the accents weren't as thick because I was from the city, but still...

As for the flag, that sounds like something I would definitely do! No one around here seems to care for the Indiana flags though.

I knew someone from New Jersey once. We always said "New Joisey" in front of her and she thought it was funny. She also said "and all that jazz" a ton, too.

I think when it comes to meeting people from other states, I'd say I get along with Tennesee people the most. For some reason, every person I've met from there has always been extremely nice to me. They also really enjoy talking about life in the south. Although between you and me, their accents would drive me crazy back when I was little.

I LOVE Houston and Houstonians. They are a very wiley bunch. People don't realize that but it has the highest per capita number of engineers in the US. Between NASA and the oil & gas industry - there are some smart "folks" there.

Yeah - and they sound nothing like Sandy. I dunno - maybe she's from Midland. I just had Spongebob on and she was saying "Aaah reckon" a lot - they don't say that in L.A.

Tennesseans are great, aren't they? Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville all have their own idiosynchrasies. The "edjucated ones" in Nashville actually have very nice accents. (Like the Vandy crowd).

Don't care for country music, though - but its not all country. Jack White and Sheryl Crow moved there.

OMG! New Jersey people have the best sense of humor about their state of anyone! And actually, I've been there and its definitely NOT the crappiest state in the union! Its actually quite pretty!