Foreign Accent Syndrome is one of the rarest neurological disorders in the world, in which the affected person suddenly loses their native accent and begins to speak in a way that sounds like they belong to a completely different language or accent — without having ever learned it.
This syndrome usually appears after brain injuries, strokes, or serious accidents, and causes a subtle malfunction in the brain regions responsible for moving the speech muscles, especially when pronouncing vowels.
These small changes in the positioning of the tongue and jaw make the sounds produced different enough to be heard as a "new accent".
According to international medical records, only a few dozen cases have been recorded worldwide, yet its psychological and social impact on those affected is significant, as they find themselves speaking in a way that does not resemble their identity or linguistic history.
For example: the case of Lianne Ro
Among these rare cases, the story of Lianne Rowe from Australia stands out . She was involved in a serious car accident years ago and subsequently suffered from speech difficulties due to jaw damage.
When she regained her ability to speak, she noticed that her Australian accent had disappeared and been replaced by an accent that sounded "French," even though she had never mastered French.
Doctors suspect that her injury affected the precise control of tongue movements, causing her speech to deviate in a way that suggests the speaker is using a different accent — just as happens in most cases of this syndrome.
What happens in the brain?
According to neurolinguistics experts, including analyses from United Academics, the dysfunction likely occurs in the areas responsible for moving the speech muscles, particularly those controlling the pronunciation of vowels.
These vowels change with the most subtle movements of the tongue within the mouth . When these muscles lose their precision due to nerve damage, they produce different sounds, which may appear to listeners as a foreign accent.
Therefore, research says that the patient does not actually learn a new accent, but rather changes the way he speaks in a way that makes us associate his voice with an accent we know — such as French, Russian or Italian — even if the patient does not master that accent in the first place.
Despite the seemingly absurd nature of the idea at first glance, the syndrome causes genuine suffering. Many sufferers say they feel they have "lost a part of their identity" because their manner of speaking no longer resembles who they once were.
Some of them avoid speaking in front of others, and some of them suffer from anxiety or depression due to the sudden change in their tone.
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