I was wondering if deaf people had accents. Last time I asked on reddit and was called an idiot because British sign language and American sign language is different.
Like, not really what I was asking, but they were insistent that I was ablist or something.
Deaf people will almost unavoidably copy the mouth shapes they’ve seen when other people have spoken. This means that how they sound will be at least somewhat informed by any hearing people they observe as well as indirectly through other deaf people who have also learned from hearing folks.
So yes, aspects of voice accent do carry over to deaf people.
There’s also the concept of “accent” within sign language too. How people move between signs, carry themselves and act when expressing an emotion, which is usually exaggerated for the sake of clear communication, can vary from community to community, even if the base sign language is the same.
I was wondering if deaf people had accents. Last time I asked on reddit and was called an idiot because British sign language and American sign language is different.
Like, not really what I was asking, but they were insistent that I was ablist or something.
Deaf people will almost unavoidably copy the mouth shapes they’ve seen when other people have spoken. This means that how they sound will be at least somewhat informed by any hearing people they observe as well as indirectly through other deaf people who have also learned from hearing folks.
So yes, aspects of voice accent do carry over to deaf people.
There’s also the concept of “accent” within sign language too. How people move between signs, carry themselves and act when expressing an emotion, which is usually exaggerated for the sake of clear communication, can vary from community to community, even if the base sign language is the same.
Reddit is bad
OP didn’t ask about signing, but speaking.
Speaking and talking are colloquially used to describe people communicating in sign language. “I speak ASL”, “I talk ASL”, etc.
Definitions of the words speak and talk cover non-verbal communication.
That said, I agree that OP was likely asking about spoken word.
And neither was this OP.