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Head Injury Induces Foreign Accent Syndrome
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have identified a rare disorder in which people, usually who have suffered a brain injury, find themselves speaking with a foreign accent. As reported by Science Blog, a Florida woman found herself speaking with a British accident after a stroke left her partially paralyzed. Fewer than 20 cases have been reported since 1919."
Oh, so many jokes...which to choose from...
And which foreign people to insult?
...this sounds like a bad sitcom plot.
So all I gotta do is bang my head to loose my accent.
It would be helpful to know which way to bang it to get the midwestern one instead of the hillbilly...
Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
Good day, old sport! Mind if I play through your auto accident? Don't mind the tea on your bonnet; I've invited me mum to watch.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
"I had a stroke and all I got was this bloody accent"
I played lots of American football when I was younger. That must be why I am 'fluent in prick' as my boss likes to say.
...that explains the whole Graham Norton thing.
Maybe I could be the subject of research too! I can see it now...
Adaptive Accent Syndrome: a study into funny accents ;)
click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
1 b4n63d my h34d 0n 4 c0mpu73r 4nd n0w 4|| my 4cc3n7 4r3 Pwn3d |1k3 7h15.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Fewer than 20 cases have been reported since 1919.
I'll bet you this "syndrome" gets popular. 20 cases in 80 years. You'll probably meet someone who claims to have it by 2006. We'll have FAS support groups and docu-dramas. Eventually some sort of new drug treatment will appear...
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
No, never "not on purpose" but I have noticed it. I've spoken with many people who've had an accent and found that communication sped up tremendously when either of us did a little bit of "adopting" the other's terminology and pronounciation. In fact, I see this happen between people who have the same accent; they will both shift into a common subset of words when talking, so communication speeds up a bit. One person will say "bike" and another will say "motorcycle" and soon they will refer to the object as "motorcycle." It's just sort of something people do when speaking to others.
What a politically incorrect premise:
;-)
Woman Suffers Brain Injury, Now Speaks With British Accent
But who are we to argue with science?
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
Texans. It makes so much sense that their stupidity and their accent is both caused by some collective head injury.
It just seems like an example of phrenology at work. Now maybe those naysayers, who have cast dispersions at this science, will see the error of their ways.
"Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?"
I wonder if Madonna had this, when she married her British husband and all of a sudden thought she was English as well.
-Vic
I'll bet one of England's kings, several hundred years ago, had a stroke and started speaking that way; then the nobles decided it was in fashion and imitated it, then the populace began talking that way... No wonder they all talk funny. ;-)
Am I the only who thinks the only reason this story is Slashdot-worthy is because this was central to the plot of a Neal Stephenson book?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
It is explained here:
'Foreign accent syndrome' explained
Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome'
Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) and after (1.1MB) acquiring the syndrome.
Copy and paste of the entire text in case of
Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome'
News
3 October 2002
Oxford neuropsychologists have located some very small lesions in the brain which can lead to a rare speech disorder known as Foreign Accent Syndrome. This condition, which is usually the result of a stroke or head injury, makes patients change their pronunciation to sound like non-native speakers.
The finding is a further piece in the puzzle which Oxford scientists are trying to solve. Teamwork between Dr Jennifer Gurd at Oxford University's Department of Clinical Neurology and phonetician Dr John Coleman has already led to more precise analyses of the rare symptom which has been a mystery to physicians for a long time.
Cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome differ with respect to both the cause and the nature of the new accent, which could for example be like Spanish or Dutch in a native speaker of English. The syndrome can arise after a stroke or other brain injury, including closed head injury as might happen in a road traffic accident. The kind of accent a patient develops is not dependent on any knowledge of a particular foreign language. It is rather the combination of certain changed features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch, or mispronouned sounds, which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a particular foreign accent.
Dr Gurd said: 'The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us. It is understandably quite traumatic for patients to find that their accent has changed. We are keen to help patients on their road to recovery..
'Patients derive some comfort from knowing more about the causes of their rare condition and many are happy to help scientists to understand better the nature of the brain and its role in human accents.'
Patients who suffer from Foreign Accent Syndrome often get better as the brain heals or other parts of the brain take over the work of the damaged areas. However patients normally need speech therapy to help speed up the healing process and to make sure that any residual speech defects are kept to a minimum.
Dr Gurd added: 'The time-course and pattern of recovery varies depending on the cause of the brain damage. As we investigate new cases, a clearer picture of the syndrome will emerge. This will enable us to help more people in the future. We would welcome further referrals of patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome.'
Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) and after (1.1MB) acquiring the syndrome.
For further information please contact the press office on 01865 280528.
Notes to editors:
The first case of Foreign Accent Syndrome was reported in 1941 from Norway, where a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injuries to the brain during an air raid. Initially she had severe language problems from which she eventually recovered but she was left with what sounded like a strong German accent, and was ostracized by her community.
The Neuropsychology Centre is part of the department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford. Its cross-disciplinary research seeks to understand the normal cognitive functions of the brain and mind and investigates how these processes break down, change and recover following brain damage.
The Phonetics Laboratory, established in 1980, conducts research in speech physiology and acoustics, as well as performing psycholinguistic experiments on speech and phonological competence. Its resources are used by linguists, psychologists and neurologists.
A Stroke Prevention Research Unit, led by Dr Pete
I have the same problem as you do. However when Im around only Americans, some people seem to think I still speak with an accent, though they cannot place from where.
Some girl even refused to believe I was from the USA, and demanded to know where I was really from despite the fact that the rest of the group could not hear an accent in my speech.
Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni
...people who can do really good accents tell jokes that keep getting more and more stupid...
I hit my head very hard at the age 3. Had to go to the emergency room. My speech has always been rather unintelligable to the people around me, and those who don't know me often ask about my "accent". I doubt there's a connection though.
Heya moe... why you no talka wit-a you accent-a no more? And now we know; it's because of a whack to the head. Mamma Mia!
I would expect them both to adopt "bike" over "motorcycle". Fewer syllables.
"The great thing about multitasking is that several things can go wrong at once." -me
[ducks and runs :-O]
Yes, but motorcycle lacks the ambiguity.
But once it's established that the token "motorcycle" is the same as the token "bike" (within the context of the current session), both parties can implicitly agree that the latter may be used in place of the less ambiguous former. Nyah.
"The great thing about multitasking is that several things can go wrong at once." -me
She-a cuoold hefe-a heet her heed und be-a telkeeng veet a svedeesh eccent. Bork bork bork!
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
that's why articles redactors should use the preview feature and re-read whatever they have written...
a Florida woman found herself speaking with a British accident
Have you ever found yourself talking with an accent (not on purpose)?
Oh, yes. English is my second language, and although I have had quiet a bit of full-time exposure to it, that was divided between several different places, so I don't have any "home" accent in English that I am confident enough in to hold on to in the face of very different surroundings. The result is that my english is so infuenced by whoever I'm talking to that it even annoys me when I catch myself doing it. Not that they ever notice; you usually have to do an accent quite perfectly for a "native" to even recognise it as theirs. But other people do catch it, so if several are present I find myself thinking things like "how did I talk last time that guy was present" to try and avoid looking like a pathetic wannabe.
And of course, the British always think I have an American accent and Americans think I have a british one (my own accent coming on top of that, of course).
sudo ergo sum
Honestly, I'm not being a pedant here (well, maybe a bit), but there is no such thing as a British accent.
There are, however, a great variety of English, Welsh, and Scottish Accents.
The variation between them is at least as great as between the "Standard" (ie Southern Middle-Class) English accent and many American Accents.
As a Londoner, when I went to Glasgow, I couldn't understand a bloody word that anyone was saying, but we were both speaking with "British" accents.
evil math within Nature's Cubic Creation!
Regardless of whether or not the parent has copied someone else's blog entry, my answer is a qualified "Yes, I've found myself speaking in a British accent when I had only meant to use my normal speaking voice." It's a queer experience and only happened on a couple occasions, though it is the same accent I've heard from a character or two in some dreams I've had.
As with all things scientific, I think this is simply another made-up explanation to somehow account for occurrances which have a deeper relationship - and perhaps no meaning whatsoever.
8-PP
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
One of my college roomates was Austrailian, but he'd been in the states since he was 11 so he had lost his Aussie accent. But when he got drunk, his accent came back. His brother use to get high all the time but being stoned didn't have the same affect (or his brother lost his accent at an earlier age and couldn't recover it.)
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I am going to go ahead and call "B.S." It would seem to me, and I am by no means a medical doctor, that if you had a brain injury, you would not suddenly speak in a different accent. I would think maybe these people have a prior history of other psychological issues, like delusions, multiple personality disorder, etc. Or maybe they just fantasize about being from England, then they hit their head, and really do think they are English.
"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"
I hate sigs.
Well, I suppose that would depend on whether you were having a normal conversation or presenting at a science conference... The fact is, I know people who use the term "bike" for both, and leave it up to you to read your mind as to which they are talking about. It is so much simpler if everyone just uses the proper words for things. A two-wheeled vehicle propelled by a pedaling action is a bicycle. A two-wheeled vehicle propelled by fuel is a motorcycle. Any other usage is really just asking for trouble.
I once had a british accent for about a day when I had fallen asleep listing to the radio broadcasts of "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" on tape. The player had auto side switching, so I just kept listening to the same two sides over and over for about 9 hours of sleep.
I actually tried very hard that day to NOT speak with the accent, but found I couldn't. By that evening it was over nd I was normal again (well, as much as I was before).
I don't think there is any mystery in it. It's likely the same as moving to an area with a different local accent and eventually you start speaking with one. I just happen to have the accelerated course.
Take it for what it's worth.
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I think that all british - derived peoples of the world are actually born with the default british accent and as they grow up they pick up the local accent. When she banged her head she defaulted back to british. It won't be long, maybe a few reboots before her prefs go back American.
You're both wrong. They'd use the word "motorbike" as a compromise.
What the hell is a British accident? Prince Charles? The Spice Girls?
Whoops, I did mean to say "cast aspersions". I'm forever getting the two mixed up, because of their similarity, and probably because the "dis-" sound from 'dispersions' has a nicely negative feel to it.
Maybe one day I'll even learn how to read over some of my replies
not even ONE reference to UF? well, here's one! :) go pitr..
-= ailaG =-
It's not about logic. This was a post about human behavior and tendencies. WHY people do it can't be explained away, especially not over slashdot.