When people who are deaf, learn to speak, why is it they (some) speak with a recognisable accent?

Question

I can't think of any particular actors or actresses to give my question recognisable proof, but I've known people who are (profoundly) deaf who speak with with 'accents.'

Answer 1

We all have to remember that not every single deaf people are the same. There are however, different types of deafness.

But please excuse me, because I only only a few. And thus I hope it may help to answer your question.

As you may have seen or known, or did not know, there are deaf who cannot speak but instead use sign language as communication to others.

Plus, there are some who are PROFOUNDLY deaf, that means it cannot hear, BUT it dosen't mean that it cannot speak unless it have an equiment to hear, for example hearing aids or cochlear Implants. Some were born as profeoundly deaf, but there is other ones too. The profoundly deaf person will not be able to hear any sounds except (maybe can) hear the most loudest noise, but wearinf hearing aids or cochlear implant helps then to hear sounds that they never heard before.

Moderate deaf are people who can hear but not far sounds. He/She may hear sounds quite close to him/her, but not so far away. So only sometimes the moderate deaf wear hearing aids to enable them to hear far sounds, as well as hearing better. I have a friend who is moderate deaf, she have an accent of the city, so the moderate deaf have an accent, while the profoundly deaf have no accent.

That's the different between the profoundly and the moderate, both of them however rely on their eyes for lipreading, quick movements, as well as they are sentitive to what is going on around them, like vibrations, funny expressions.

I'll give you 2 examples:

E.G 1:
If you talk to a moderate deaf, you may not tell if she's deaf, because she have an accent or maybe because if she's npt facing towards you, she could hear you.
But if you talk to the profoundly deaf, she have this funny vioce and prounce the words in different ways. Why? because it is hard for them to say exactly what it is suppose to sound like, but they can succeed with help from people. And when she is facing towrads you, and you speak, she won't be able to hear you anyway, because she relies on lipreading alot than listening.

E.G 2:
In a classroom, there are two deaf people, one is moderate and the other is profoundly deaf. A few children (with normal hearing) is whispering abd playing around the papers while the teacher is talking. A Moderate may (not all the time) can hear the teacher despite the noise in the backgrounds, whilte the profoundly deaf child will not, because there are so many noises, and so many movements, he can't even lipread, so instead he'll be like what the teaceher may describe "a day-dreaming child" or "lazy".

According to your question, you say you know people who are profoundly deaf who speak with 'accents', again I have to say, some are able to have acccents while some are not, depending on their hearing level. But not all can do that.

However, i can't remember which actor, but he is deaf, a famous actor you all may know. I'll try and post it up soon, if not that may means i couldn't find the papers!

Also there's another thing, remember not all are born deaf. Some are genetic, some are not. Somemay have an accident and because of it they may become deaf.

Sorry if this is so long and i do hope it helps!

Answer 2

Deaf people (who are born deaf) learn to speak by copying the movements and positions of the mouth of a hearing person. (The same way you learn to lip-read). That's why they sound 'funny' when they talk, because they can only copy the movements - not hear what sound they're supposed to make.

The accent comes from the people around them, the same way a hearing person picks up an accent while learning to speak. The accent and dialect is obviously reflected in the movements of your mouth which make the sound.

Answer 3

I'm no expert, but for those who are profoundly deaf, I think it's something to do with how they hear / percieve the sound of their own voices when speaking, so like you say, they speak with a kind of nasal accent.

Answer 4

Your voice pattern is partly controlled by what you hear when you speech.

Those that are deaf don't get that feedback, so there is a lack on control.

Deaf people who use some form of artificial aid, such as a cochlia implant have a more controlled speech pattern.

Answer 5

this is caused by them not hearing so they will not know they are sounding different to anyone else.
when you learn to talk you can hear and also pick up your local accent from the area you live in deaf people do not have this ability so just move mouth in way that they see others doing it causing them to sound different ..
tried not to get all techie with this one

Answer 6

Most deaf people who speak "normally" do so because they were either not born deaf or they are not totally deaf.

Answer 7

folk who are born deaf never hear anything so are unable to copy words.folk who went deaf later on usually know the way words are meant to sound.

Answer 8

Because they can't hear themselves. They learned to speak by watching the mouth movements of another person.

Answer 9

Well how do you learn to speak with an accent, by listening to those who speak around you and coping it! its quite simple when you think about it.

Answer 10

Because they can't hear how they sound, so they can't tell how they sound different from others. (They probably know they sound different because of other people's reactions, like asking what their accent is or asking them to repeat themselves, but they can't hear it themselves.)