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:
“Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“I lost my ridiculous accent without acquiring another”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others—first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one’s own interests and desires. Carried to its “perfection,” it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)