Monday, 1 October 2012
Like Strangers in Their Own Land
Fewer than 100 cases of foreign accent syndrome, have been identified worldwide, but it is certainly one of the strangest things that can happen to anyone. From one day to the next, a person wakes up speaking with what sounds like an accent from another country.
But in fact, this similarity is merely random. Scientists now know that foreign accent syndrome is actually a particular kind of aphasia that produces slight alterations in the prosody of language. Listeners then perceive these unusual variations in the rhythm and meolody of the person’s speech as a foreign accent.
Foreign accent syndrome can result from many different kinds of events that disrupt activity in certain very specific parts of the brain. These events include migraine, highly localized strokes, blows to the head, and many other causes about which little is yet known (see last link below).
The ways that people who have this syndrome react to it also vary widely, as you can see by clicking the following links to videos of some of them talking about it.
Video Greeting from Eastside Ellen
F.A.S. Sisters
Foreign Accent Syndrome (Kay Russell)
Migraine sufferer left speaking with a Chinese accent
Foreign Accent Syndrome
Le syndrome de l’ accent étranger, à en perdre son latin !
From Thought to Language | Comments Closed
