asperger's and accents

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My boyfriend grew up in Fairfax and he's got pretty much an exact mix of a northern and southern accent. He actually makes me sound more southern than him sometimes! He also has family in both Maine and Georgia, so that could all be colliding into his Virginia accent as well. But he's hilarious. We're always saying to each other, "Okay, let's be serious now" but within a few seconds, we do something stupid and we both laugh our heads off.

OMG The Canadians! I don't know how many times I've heard "eh" and "aboot" come out of a Canadian's mouth. And I'm not just saying that because I watch South Park. Canadians are funny. But you're definitely right about them arguing a lot. Last fall on YouTube, a Canadian and I got into World War III and about thirty other people joined in. I actually ended up winning and people were like "Team America!" LOL

I think Minnesota has truly more tourists from any other state. That and Ohio. I swear half the cars here these days are from Ohio!

Sorry for bumping such an old thread but this reminds me: is someone from the UK interested in perhaps listening to a recording of me reading or saying something in one of the accents I (or others) often find myself doing that others claim sounds British? I am from and still live in Philly but of course this second accent sounds pretty far off. I guess it would make sense going PM for this as I don't want to clutter the forum more...

I feel like I have a pretty non-specified American accent but others assume I'm a foreigner... I'm often asked what country I'm from, and have even been mistaken for an exchange student in my OWN high school. How embarassing.

I have undiagnosed AS and I have an accent, but not all the time. when I first meet people I tend to articulate very carefully and so I really sound like I have an accent. I've been asked if I'm from New Zealand, England and other places. Or, people just don't know and they look at me like 'wow'. English is the most common (I'm australian) because of the articulation I emphasise, but I also have Dutch heritage and sometimes I change my sentence structure to the dutch way of speaking. I don't know why I do that. Just for variety, really.

When I'm relaxed I often speak broadly australian. My voice has been a big issue for me because it is really unusual (I also have musical ability that shocks people and some training) and because I often wish to be a wallflower using my voice properly is something that takes courage. It just f*cking stands out and my hearing is sensitive too.

Strange as it sounds, I have to remember that I don't care what people think and I don't need people in my life so that I have the courage to be who I am. I also have supportive in my life which is great, but I do get sick of even them looking at me in amazement at my expressions and stuff I say.

Interesting thread. I'm from Saskatchewan, Canada. Just the other day my mom was telling me how I sounded like an Englishman as a child. I've had people ask me if I'm french. I don't even know anyone french, and have only been to Quebec briefly.

While in Wyoming this summer, people did recognize me as Canadian, but that was because of the typical "eh". I did notice myself having conversations with people and I could hear myself copying their accent. I had to discontinue the conversation, as I was scared of offending them.

I'm Australian and I'm always told that I have an accent, mostly I'm told that it sounds British and occassionaly people tell me that they think I'm from New Zealand, I never understood this until I realized that I have autism/AS.

What about 'upper' class blacks still standing by their race-e.g. Van Jones, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakan, the NSBE (National Society for Black Engineers), etc

I've thus far been unable to determine where my accent comes from...
I live in California, as I always have, but I don't use a Californian accent... Or a Western one... Or a neutral-sounding American one.
My accent contains a number of odd Early Modern English vowel distinctions, detailed below:
father/bother - not merged; distinguished by length, not roundedness
cot/caught - not merged; typical East Coast distinction
Mary/merry/marry - not merged; typical East Coast distinction
lot/cloth - not split; they have the same vowel
tube/cube - these rhyme when I say them... And the vowel is the one found in "cube" in Californian pronunciation; it's a diphthong, it sounds nothing like "you".

A number of these characteristics my not sound odd, but keep in mind that no one else in California speaks this way! (Including Aspies whom I've met.)

I am a native Texan (at least 5th generation) living in the Texas Hill Country, and have an accent typical of someone from the Rust Belt (Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, western Pennsylvania, or western New York). That is weird because I have never been to that part of the country.

My parents don't have accents either. My ancestors from my Mom's side were from the area where Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas meet. My dad's ancestors were concentrated in north Texas, between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls (in fact, the town of Boyd, in Wise County, was supposedly named after my ancestors--Boyd is my last name). They were a very powerful family in Montague and Wise counties.

I grew up in urban New Jersey.

As I grew up, and moved away, I fought to lose the Jersey accent.

Then I started traveling with a British company and I discovered that I mimic.

Now...I have a strange accent. It changes depending on who I talk to. My kids crack up when I get on the phone with the old friends from Jersey.

I'm from Yorkshire in England. I have a strong Yorkshire accent but have been mistaken for an American on a few occasions, in social and stressful situations, when I speak differently. My inner monologue is American and I write in an American accent. I put this down to, like the typical AS girl, closely studying American TV as a kid (and even now) to figure out how to behave.

Aut prosody topic

When a spoken sentence ends with a word containing the letter 'o' as the last letter in the word, the sound comes out as "aw" when I am upset. Examples are: Go=Gaw and No=Naw

Eh, up! 'appen, tha knows!

How's that? Heh heh!

Well, I'm American, and grew up mostly in northern California, so I probably just sound generically "American". However, my husband is from England (Chester) and most of what we watch on TV is British, from Netflix, because American TV just isn't very good. I've pretty much gotten so a Manchester or Liverpool accent is hardly noticeable, but if I hear something like a Boston or New York accent, it sounds harsh and abrasive. I also notice that a lot of times when English people try to do an American accent, they end up sounding like John Wayne, or the guys from the old Thunderbirds shows. I've never known any real Americans who sound like that.

There's one thing that drives me nuts about "American accents", and I know this is silly. But, in my kid's school textbooks, they write out how to pronounce certain vocabulary words. American English has this sound that we call the "shwa". It's the unemphasized "uh" that so many vowels get. For instance, in my kid's book, "philosophers" is given the pronunciation, "fuh-LAH-suh-fuhrs." I know that we tend to get kind of lazy with the vowels, but it irks me that that's given as the correct pronunciation. It shouldn't bother me, though. Language is dynamic, and you can't keep it from changing. But still.... I suppose a English school child's textbook wouldn't have all that "uh" in the pronunciation guide for every word.

I'm actually not sure if I say all those "uh's" so much. Perhaps I do. 'appen. I think I at least attempt to enunciate things clearly, but I do tend to take on the accent of the person I'm talking to, at least a little bit.


BTW, I can't help but find it a bit amusing that someone would watch American TV to find out how to behave.

Slightly off topic.

I can't recognise other accents apart from Liverpool and Birmingham !

I've been told I've picked up a slight British accent, people who seem to know more claim it sounds London-y. Is that a word?

The odd thing is, I'm from Nevada, Mum and father are from Cali, and grandparents are from Cali, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. The accent gets a bit more pronounced around anyone with a different accent, such as Australians or Brits, takes some time to fade away again. It's been spoken of since middle school, and I grew up in a VERY tiny introverted town, with no Brits to speak of. Where it came from, I'll never know.

I once Skype chatted with some friends in NSW, and over the course of an hour, one noticed I went from sounding slightly British to sounding like a native Ozzie. Was weird.

I can probably tell what part of Texas someone is from based on the way they talk. The stereotypical Southern nobility accent (like the ones in the old Civil War movies) is more synonymous with the eastern part of the state, in cities like Longview, Tyler, Nacogdoches, Lufkin, etc. It's called "Plantation Southern". Then there is the famous Texas twangy accent, synonymous with north Texas and the Hill Country (Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Waco, Wichita Falls, Abilene, etc.) The dividing line is along a line from Victoria, to Bryan-College Station, to Palestine, to Texarkana.

Some people in the area between Houston and Beaumont/Port Arthur have the Cajun accent.

West Texans (El Paso, Midland/Odessa, Lubbock, etc.) tend to not have accents.

Even among the Hispanic population, I can tell by their accents of they're from Mexico, Puerto Rico, South America, etc.