Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition in which patients develop what appears to be a foreign accent. Foreign accent syndrome almost always results from brain damage. However, two cases have been reported of individuals with the condition as a development problem and one associated with severe migraine. Between 1941 and 2009 there have been sixty recorded cases.
Its symptoms result from distorted articulatory planning and coordination processes. It must be emphasized that the speaker does not suddenly gain a foreign language (vocabulary, syntax, grammar, etc.). Despite a recent unconfirmed news report that a Croatian speaker has gained the ability to speak fluent German after emergence from a coma, there has been no verified case where a patient's foreign language skills have improved after a brain injury. There have been a few reported cases of children and siblings picking up the new accent from someone with foreign accent syndrome.
Read more about Foreign Accent Syndrome: Description
Famous quotes containing the words foreign, accent and/or syndrome:
“There seeps from heavily jowled or hawk-like foreign faces
The guttural sorrow of the refugees.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)
“I lost my ridiculous accent without acquiring another”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“[T]he syndrome known as life is too diffuse to admit of palliation. For every symptom that is eased, another is made worse. The horse leech’s daughter is a closed system. Her quantum of wantum cannot vary.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)