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+--- Thread: "funny accents?" (/thread-273.html)
"funny accents?" - Catherine - 03-08-2011
I've been told more than once that I have an accent. It's a been strange since I've lived in this area almost my entire life. I regularly have people ask me where I'm from originally. No one has a hard time understanding me, they just think I speak with an accent. When I've asked people what this "accent" sounds like, they can't really explain it. Could this be mild speech dyspraxia? Any guesses?
RE: "funny accents?" - Near - 03-08-2011
Well, I have something similar. Despite living in the same city all my life people constantly ask me what my accent is. Heck, I've been ask if I was German more than once (much to the amusement to the few Germans I actually know).
Then again, there is an easy explanation why I have a weird accent: my first language is French (I grew up in a city that is majorly anglophone) and I grew up around kids that had all kind of different French accents. I also learned English relatively late (I really couldn't comfortably hold a conversation until high school) and I have pronunciation issues (I actually worked with a speech therapist until the fourth grade). All of that combines for a wicked accent when I speak in English
RE: "funny accents?" - AngelaVA - 03-09-2011
What about your parents? Is one of them from another area? IDK that much about speech dyspraxia but one of my children seems to have my husband's dialect and the other mine...strange.
RE: "funny accents?" - mawkinberd - 03-10-2011
I don't know about the dyspraxia, but as Angela suggested, I was often pegged as "having an accent" because my parents are from different parts of the world. Plus, since I'm pretty in tune with the sounds of speech around me, I often have to struggle not to imitate the accents of the people to whom I am speaking. Add to that all the years of diction training from college, and I could sound like any number of people, depending on the situation. lol Besides that, there may be someone important in your life whom you unconsciously imitate in your speech patterns who speaks a little differently.
Many times, it's the vowels that are different more than anything else. And if they can't peg it, it probably isn't that much of a difference, just a slight difference in the way your speaking apparatus is made. If you don't have any difficulties with forming your vowels and such, I'd be surprised if it were actually dyspraxia. Then again, I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast.
RE: "funny accents?" - Catherine - 03-10-2011
Both my parents were born and raised in the same area where I live now. lol. It's not a big deal really, I just don't like my voice much and used to get teased about it as a kid.
RE: "funny accents?" - mawkinberd - 03-11-2011
Me, too. I have a bit of a "squeaky" voice if I speak in my natural speaking range. I actually speak almost in the bottom of my speaking range usually. Many women do, since it is fashionable for both men and women to have lower voices than they actually have. Go figure.
RE: "funny accents?" - BusyMum - 03-14-2011
Maybe you sound Australian? (she suggests in a deep voice from Down Under...)
Busy Mum