A few days ago somebody online asked if people think I have an accent

[conuly]

This is a fairly common thing for autistics to have, a sort of developmental foreign accent syndrome, and I've got it too. (So, I think, does my mother, but she has an alternate explanation. Well, whatever the origin, she also is afflicted by people asking where she's from.) Interestingly, the further I get from NYC, the less people are likely to hear some strangely unidentifiable foreign accent in my speech.

Anyway, it's been a while since this came up in real life, but what do you know, just yesterday one of the people at the doctor's office asked when I was there with my mother!

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Comments

[cosmolinguist]

This is a fairly common thing for autistics to have, a sort of developmental foreign accent syndrome

Interesting! I wonder if this explains why my husband doesn't sound as much like his family -- he always attributed that to listening to lots of Radio 4. ;) Though that might still have a part to play in it, as his sister's autistic too and has a really...typical accent for her class and upbringing.

I've been interested in the facets of autism that mimic or complement foreignness, ever since I read a review of a book about Paul Dirac -- I don't know if he was diagnosed but certainly seemed to have traits symptomatic of autism -- that mentioned he had a foreign wife, Hungarian I think, and that this is not uncommon because autistic people end up having more in common with immigrants because they share a feeling of not quite sharing the experiences that everyone else has: not getting all the references and not quite feeling like you fit in sometimes. I find it interesting to think about...not least because it turns out all my lasting relationships as an immigrant have been with people who (while they didn't know it when I met them!) have ended up being autistic.

[conuly]

Interesting! I wonder if this explains why my husband doesn't sound as much like his family -- he always attributed that to listening to lots of Radio 4. ;) Though that might still have a part to play in it, as his sister's autistic too and has a really...typical accent for her class and upbringing.

That's not usually the way children pick up their dialect, though. We'd all think it might be, but... not so much. Without looking it up to confirm, I've always had the vague understanding that this is tied in to having an auditory processing disorder as well. Is that possible with your husband?

I find it interesting to think about...not least because it turns out all my lasting relationships as an immigrant have been with people who (while they didn't know it when I met them!) have ended up being autistic.

LOL!

My mother, for years, had an annoying habit of stating that this or that autistic trait* was "just normal". This is because for her, those traits were normal - she carefully selected her circle of friends, and also her husband, to be people who fit the broader autistic phenotype. Plus, both her parents and her brother fit that same phenotype. And also her. This is something she didn't like hearing until a friend of ours said that if she hadn't met me, she would've thought it was Jenn who was on the spectrum. (And comparatively speaking, my sister is extremely NT, so I actually don't know what M was thinking.)

* Things like playing by sorting or lining up your toys, or not being able to consistently button ones shirt through to the double digits, that sort of thing. She did correctly peg the eye contact, lack of pointing, and sensory defensiveness when I was in infancy, though. It's this which makes her occasional bouts of denial so annoying. I know she knows better!