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.

[steorra]

People occasionally think my sister has an accent. She's not autistic to my knowledge or suspicion. In her case it seems more likely to be that people think she looks foreign/not-exactly-white (a more common perception) and then read that back into her speech.

[plicease]

People tell me that my parents have aussie accents (by dad's is stronger apparently). But I don't hear it at all. To me they just sound like mum and dad, and nothing like other Australians.

[fred_mouse]

I recognise that issue with the accent! I just think I have an upper-middle-Australian-of-anglo-celtic-origin accent, but when I worked pubs, I got so many weird questions about 'where are you *really* from'. This is not helped by the fact that I will, unless very careful, start to pick up some of the characteristics of someone else's accent, to the point that people may think that I'm taking the piss.

In recent years, it hasn't been such a thing, but I've also been working in universities in areas with high numbers of international students, where one of the long term workmates was of similar socio-economic background, although 20 years older (and so more like my mum, whose accent I pretty closely mimicked, to the point of being completely trained to always answer the phone by telling people who I am, because I learnt that if I didn't do that people would tell me embarrassing things).

[fairestcat]

The accent thing is really interesting. I'm not autistic spectrum, but my whole life people have told me I have an accent, even when I lived in the same place for the first 18 years of my life.

[chaos_by_design]

I have issues with my voice. A lot of people when I was younger seemed to have a real problem with it; people made fun of it, my college not!boyfriend kept bugging me about it, at one time a girl wanted to beat me up over it because it annoyed her so much.

As far as the accent goes, people seem to universally agree on a New York accent, despite my not having lived in NY for decades.

Also, people totally deny there's anything wrong with my voice now. I'm still self-conscious about it though.

If you're curious, here's a sample from one of my let's plays:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CNabrhzLLI

[oracleofdoom]

I'd never heard the accent thing, but that's kinda me? I live in Colorado, and as far as I can tell, the people here, including myself, speak in the "plain" sort of way that most newscasters and such in the U.S. do. But when I hear recordings of my voice, it sounds like I have kind of a twangy accent. I don't get it, and it's kind of embarrassing.

FWIW, I'm not diagnosed autistic... we're doing some testing for my son, but I don't know. I've begun wondering about myself?

[asakiyume]

That article on climate change, lack of water, and new, chronic, kidney disease is very sobering....

[siderea]

The link for "The Suffragist Statue Trapped in a Broom Closet for 75 Years" goes to the "Wrong Kitty Litter" story.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"Interestingly, the further I get from NYC, the less people are likely to hear some strangely unidentifiable foreign accent in my speech."

I wonder if that's because the farther you get from NYC, the more people are likely to hear your New York accent, which other people from New York don't notice because they've got it too.