Why do you talk like that? Me and my Autism Accent
Where did you learn to speak like that?
I find the concept of ‘autism accent’ fascinating. It’s the idea that some autistic people do not have the accent you would expect them to have (i.e a regional accent, or an accent associated with other cultural and community factors).
Instead, so-called ‘autism accent’ tends to affect intonation and pronunciation - in a variety of ways that are deemed ‘atypical’. I personally wouldn’t even say it’s the stereotypical ‘monotone’ pitch that is associated with autism, I know plenty of folks who have a rather ‘sing-songy’ voice, which some would also view as ‘atypical’.
When I mask, I sound like a children’s TV presenter who has ate a lot of sugar. Unmasked me sounds flatter, more monotonous, disinterested (although I’m usually not, unless you’re boring).
As a kid I was always, always, always called posh by the other kids, despite us living in Wigan, a place not known to be particularly posh. It was true though, I have seen old family videos of me as a child and I do speak a bit like I’m a minor royal visiting a factory in the provinces. My family, with its Scouse origins, all share a vaguely Scouse accent. But not me, I sounded like I’d trained at RADA until I grew older.
As I became a teenager I started to do this curious thing… that I still do. It is embarrassing but not something I can change. I take on aspects of other people’s accents without realising I’m doing it. My partner has remarked that after I speak with my family I sound more Scouse, or when I come back from being out in town I sound more Mancunian. To someone who knows nothing about me, that probably comes across as strange indeed. But I have no clue I’m doing it unless its pointed out or I hear myself on a recording. (Also, as with everything I think other people might find ‘strange’ about me, might they consider that they simply just need to get a grip and find a hobby?)
So why does it happen? I did a cursory google to show that I’d done some basic research and found very little in the way that wasn’t just Reddit-based conjecture. (Instead, you can read my Substack-based conjecture).
According to a study in Italy from 2024, the accents of Italian autistic children who took part were found to:
not have any regional features
sound like the accent typically heard in cartoons and children’s TV shows (I think they must mean a general USA accent here)
This study concludes that the reason for the atypical accent is a ‘lasting influence of non‐interactional, screen sources on their speech’.
So is it the TV/YouTube/content what does it? I’m not sure I totally buy it. Sure, I can see from my own experience that children’s TV definitely played its part in forming my accent. I don’t remember any regional accents on children’s TV in the 90s save for Poppy the Scouse cat on Playdays. As a little kid I loved watching news programmes, like the evenings news on ITV, where they all spoke the Queen’s English and everyone sounded very hoity. Was it that influence? That being said, I‘m sure not every autistic child was as into the news as I was, so why do regional autistic kids sometimes sound posh?
Maybe ‘autism accent’ is also down to plenty of other factors, including but not limited to:
masking to blend in with your peers (in the case of me taking on other people’s accents without noticing),
not being influenced by those around you (in the same way we seem to be less likely to be influenced to assimilate in other ways)
some other third thing that I am not clever enough to articulate, but I reckon it’s also to do with the way we process language (but I’m not an academic or a medical professional! I’m a random with a laptop!)
For many autistic people the ‘autism accent’ stuff simply doesn’t apply, which is also really interesting - it’s clearly one of many, many things that could occur, or not occur in someone with a ‘spiky profile’.
It doesn’t bother me, and I reckon for many, if not most of us, it simply isn’t something that affects us. We have bigger fish to fry. I like sounding the way I do, just don’t ask me to listen to a recording of myself!
What’s going on in the Wavy World?
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