From: "Dave Coull" <coull2-AT-btinternet.com>
Subject: Stroke gives woman British accent
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 19:20:51 -0000



The idea that an English accent could be the result of brain damage
is causing some indecent glee on Scottish discussion lists....

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Stroke gives woman British accent

An American woman has been left with a British accent after having a stroke.
This is despite the fact that Tiffany Roberts, 61, has never been to
Britain.
Her accent is a mixture of English cockney and West Country. Doctors say Mrs
Roberts,
who was born and bred in Indiana, has a condition called foreign accent
syndrome.
This rare condition occurs when part of the brain becomes damaged. This can
follow
a stroke or head injury. There have only been a few documented cases.

Mrs Roberts discovered she had a British accent after recovering her voice
following a stroke in 1999. "When people first started asking me where in
England
I was from and a family member asked why am I talking that way, that is when
I became very conscious that a part of me had died during the stroke," she
said.

The first case of foreign accent syndrome was reported in 1941 in Norway,
after
a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injury to the brain during an air
raid.
Initially, she had severe language problems from which she eventually
recovered.
However, she was left with what sounded like a strong German accent and was
ostracized
by her community.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/3235934.stm