Ayna
23-07-08, 11:17 PM
I watched a footage last night about this rare case than happens to a tiny amount of people usually after a stroke or other brain injuries.
Where it is said that some patients who suffer brain injuries occasionally lose the ability to talk in their native accent.
I found that quite weird yet interesting, so I decided to do some more research about it and share with you guys.
I found an article in BBC news that says that this case can mean that a native English speaker can end up sounding more like Spanish or French.
To add insult to injury, some doctors dismissed the problem as more likely to be psychiatric in origin than physical.
Now researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with "foreign accent syndrome" seem to share certain characteristics which might explain the problem.
A small number of them all had tiny areas of damage in various parts of the brain.
This might explain the combination of subtle changes to vocal features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch or mispronounced sounds which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a foreign accent.
Dr Jennfier Gurd, who led the research with phonetician Dr John Coleman, 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.
"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."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2300395.stm
Also I found this Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6y0voUoeGE) on Youtube that shows one of the few cases of this Syndrome where it happened to an American woman after she had a head injury; she developed what sounded like a strong, fluent british accent.
Despite never having been to Britain.
Apart from a British accent, she has begun using British vocabulary, such as "bloody", and "loo".
Another case of foreign accent syndrome and the one I had seen on TV last night, occurred to Linda Walker, a 60 year old woman from the Newcastle area. After a stroke, her normal accent was transformed and has been variously described as resembling a Jamaican, as well as a French Canadian, Italian and a Slovak accent.
Where it is said that some patients who suffer brain injuries occasionally lose the ability to talk in their native accent.
I found that quite weird yet interesting, so I decided to do some more research about it and share with you guys.
I found an article in BBC news that says that this case can mean that a native English speaker can end up sounding more like Spanish or French.
To add insult to injury, some doctors dismissed the problem as more likely to be psychiatric in origin than physical.
Now researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with "foreign accent syndrome" seem to share certain characteristics which might explain the problem.
A small number of them all had tiny areas of damage in various parts of the brain.
This might explain the combination of subtle changes to vocal features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch or mispronounced sounds which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a foreign accent.
Dr Jennfier Gurd, who led the research with phonetician Dr John Coleman, 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.
"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."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2300395.stm
Also I found this Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6y0voUoeGE) on Youtube that shows one of the few cases of this Syndrome where it happened to an American woman after she had a head injury; she developed what sounded like a strong, fluent british accent.
Despite never having been to Britain.
Apart from a British accent, she has begun using British vocabulary, such as "bloody", and "loo".
Another case of foreign accent syndrome and the one I had seen on TV last night, occurred to Linda Walker, a 60 year old woman from the Newcastle area. After a stroke, her normal accent was transformed and has been variously described as resembling a Jamaican, as well as a French Canadian, Italian and a Slovak accent.