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the-magnificunt t1_ircnvk3 wrote

Reply to comment by shiftdnb in TIL about the foreign accent syndrome (FAS), which is a speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a “foreign” accent. FAS is usually caused by damage to the brain from a traumatic injury or a stroke. by Imaginary_Emu3462

Or ADHD.

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Syd_Barrett_50_Cal t1_irk1ma0 wrote

Explain?

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the-magnificunt t1_irldocz wrote

It's very common in people with neurodivergence, especially ADHD, to mimic the accents of people they're talking to, often without even realizing it. It's a kind of unintentional masking because we're often mirroring the gestures and facial expressions of people we're talking to in order to fit into our environment.

This post shows an example of it.

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Syd_Barrett_50_Cal t1_irta307 wrote

Oh god yeah I have ADHD and definitely do this. Back around 10 years ago I became internet friends with a bunch of British dudes and would play games with them pretty frequently, like 6+ hours a day throughout the summer. Eventually one of my non-British friends started playing with us and nearly died laughing when he first joined the Skype call. Apparently I had unconsciously started picking up their accents on several words. I still do it to this day with any accent that surrounds me, at this point I don’t even know what my “normal” accent is supposed to be. I’ve moved around so frequently and been around so many accents that it’s a combination of “generic American midwestern white guy”, “generic urban black dude”, “generic southern white guy”, “generic Ontario Canadian”, mixed with a hint of “generic Latino dude”. I need to stay put for a few years or else I’m gonna start sounding like Andrew Tate or Jared Diamond or something.

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