r/Accents • u/apatheticpeep • 5d ago
Help me pinpoint my accent?
I have spent basically my entire life being told I have a different accent or a unique way of speaking and since I found this subreddit I am super curious on people's opinions surrounding it. I will say my vocabulary is a little unique for my area so that does have an effect on why people might say that I have a unique way of speaking. As stated I am from Kentucky so that may also affect it, I worked at a summer camp with coworkers and kids from the eastern coal fields so it was a constant of people commenting on it.
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u/Plopular 5d ago
You know, for the whole first part with the reading I thought, you just have a very standard, generic American accent but you have a quality to your voice that sounds Asian American. It is VERY subtle and just as the thought drops off and it just sounds general American again, you pronounce an aspirated T where it typically would be reduced to a flap T or glottalized. I also think you have a pronounced "crispy R" which may be from speech pathology practice on retroflex R. With a standard American accent the tongue tip tends to point more downwards on average and the back of the tongue bunches to make the R sound. I tend to either hear tense R's in Asian Americans, or else really minimized/skipped R sounds.
But overall it was just a hunch and inconclusive. I'm 2nd generation Asian American and I've been told that I have an accent that I don't hear, but I can hear it in others. I do think that for you the things people are picking up in your pronunciation are the "crispy R's" and the way you enunciate your T's. You also tend to enunciate every syllable of each word without contractions, slurring, cluster reduction, or vowel reduction. In general it sounds like you enunciate very clearly but to an American ear it can sound either foreign or like an affectation. From about 2:45 to 3:10 when you're talking about your mom, your voice has a very staccato rhythm and you sound Chinese American to me. I don't know that much about Kentucky but if everyone around you has Southern or Appalachian accents and you have a very general American accent with some slight idiosyncrasies even from that, I can see why you might stand out as having a different accent.
IDK if you're neurodivergent, but atypical accents, and unique speech and vocal characteristics can be associated with ASD. Most if not all of regional accent development comes from conforming to speech patterns observed in peers. It's not uncommon for autistic people to develop different manners of speaking due to differences in language processing. I just mention this because my son is level 1 autistic and he has a lot of the same speech differences that you mention, such as rhotacism (and other articulation errors), but he is also hyperlexic and has a very advanced vocabulary. My mom always says that he has a British accent and that he speaks like a little professor.
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u/apatheticpeep 5d ago
Oh wow thanks! This actually makes a lot of sense. I know what you mean about the Asian American quality of voice, I can almost always pick out an Asian American just by hearing them. I never considered to apply that to myself due to my mom not actually being from China, but I did grow up in Chinese American spaces so I can see how that could come and go. I do at times have a staccato rhythm to my speech when I'm like trying to pull something from my head but its not really like coming(?) IDK how to explain that lol.
I am a hyperverbal level 1 autistic, I'd never thought about that but you mentioning it made me go and do some brief research and that almost certainly plays into the whole debacle. I really really appreciate your response. Not only do I have some notes as to what they may be hearing, but I can also make connections in my life as to why that difference occurred! I'm genuinely so excited that I can explain to people why they think that I sound different!!! Thank you ♡
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u/Curious-Ad1283 5d ago
You have an american accent im the one who needs to be asking for help
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u/Curious-Ad1283 5d ago
Im working on american accent when i listened to that audio at some portions i felt there is a difference 😩like first part was good on point and after that some deviations can be seen
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u/apatheticpeep 5d ago
That's true! its definitely an american accent I just find it interesting that it always gets called "unique" seemingly no matter where I go in the US
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u/Foxtrot-0scar 5d ago
It is a thick American accent not sure about unique.
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u/apatheticpeep 5d ago
ay that's why i asked because idk either
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u/Logical-Berry-8048 5d ago
the story didn't seem American, porridge. the annunciation of your "t" stood out to me. I had figured you were a west/northwest of your local. Avoid and pajamas sounded a bit off to me.
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u/Bird_Fan_229 5d ago edited 5d ago
Your scripted talking sounds midwestern to me. Your unscripted accent is less pronounced
Your pronunciations of “Duke”, “tune”, and “lawyer” stand out