why cant I hear my own accent?

why cant I hear my own (foreign) accent when I speak? …

I can sure hear it when I get to listen to a recording of me speaking (e.g. answering machine)???

cheers
alfred

I’ve never heard about this specifically in connection to accent… most people think that their regional ‘accent’ is so normal that they never notice it or think of it as an accent, but that would apply equally to your voice on tape, so that probably isn’t the explanation.

Probably it’s part of the ‘why does my voice on tape so different from how I hear it when I’m speaking’ question, which is covered by the advisory board here.

(Cecil and his minions really have explored most of the mysteries of the cosmos, huh? :smiley: )

I am sure aware of my accent when speaking French (badly). I know, for example, that my “r” is all wrong. I can make a decent French “r” when I try hard, but not when worrying about all the other aspects of the language. I said “aware”, but I am not sure that “hear” is the correct verb. I remember reading somewhere that something happens in your inner ear to make your ears considerably less sensitive when you are speaking. This protects your auditory nerves from being overloaded. I do know that I cannot believe that that is me when a recording of my own voice.

just to add some relevant information … you know all the chokes about asian folks not bein able to pronounce the “R” and substituting it by a “L” instead (yeah, velly velly funny)

… well, i somewhere read that the cant pronounce the R, b/c they do NOT hear it as an R, rather they hear it as an L …

I think there is a close link between hearing and speaking (like deaf people who lost audition and have more and more problems talking as they lose feedback)

again, my (german origin) accent is not very terrible in a spanish speaking country (8 yrs. there!) - but it always interested me that people after living 30 yrs in a different country still have their distinct accents.

any thoughts?
alfred

I don’t have a foreign accent, but I have an extremely “different” speech pattern. I can understand how my “subjective” and “objective” voices can differ regarding resonance or timbre, but mine also differ in speed and pitch, which I totally don’t understand.

I don’t notice much of an accent when I talk, but I once spent a week in Nashville where my Texas accent stuck out like a sore thumb. That said, compared to some of my friends around here, my own Texan accent is fairly subdued (unless I crank it up intentionally fer effect.)

I have a couple of hispanic friends from farther south, near the border, and while they don’t really have hispanic accents, they do have a different way of pacing their words when they speak (not sure how to describe it, but it’s slightly more clipped than your typical Texan accent), and I tend to notice it a lot more than they do. That said, most people I know can replicate that effect by drinking too much coffee, so I dunno. :smiley:

Yes, we tend to lose our ability to distinguish some sounds once our accent is “set” in our early teens.

Ever notice this isn’t a problem for children? The general concensus is that after puberty our brains lose the ability to differentiate sounds that we don’t hear regularly in the speech around us. It’s almost impossible for an adult to learn a new language w/o betraying an accent. OTOH, it’s a piece of cake for kids.