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Sudden Language / Accent Acquisition (Xenoglossy; Foreign Accent Syndrome)

The tone changes the meaning radically in Chinese, I gather.

She should not be too surprised if a need for the bed-pan is answered by the arrival of a taxi. :?

edit: literal corrected.
 
Club Tropicanal: George Michael quit cannabis "after waking from a coma speaking in a Bristolian accent"

Most of us here in Bristol are proud of the local twang - in fact, we'd say it's gert lush.

But when popstar George Michael woke up from a coma speaking in a Bristolian accent, he wasn't best pleased.

He was so unhappy, in fact, that he quit smoking cannabis as a result.

The 50-year-old singer, who admitted in 2009 he had decreased his daily amount of weed from 25 to "seven or eight" joints, was in a coma for three weeks in 2011 after suffering from pneumonia.

He was shocked to wake up speaking in a Bristolian accent rather than his usual North London one, according to reports in the Mail Online.

The Daily Mirror reports that his illness and coma led him to quit the drug altogether.

His producer David Austin told the paper: "I thought that was it when he had pneumonia. It was touch and go. We were all very worried as you would be with a family member.”

He added: "He has not smoked dope for over a year and a half now. It has completely changed his life.”

The singer has previously spoken about his shock at waking up with a West Country accent, but insisted there was 'nothing wrong' with the dialect.

National newspapers report that when he was speaking to London's LBC radio in July 2012, he said: "I swear this is true. I came out of my coma talking in this West Country accent.

"The doctors were worried that I had this condition where some people wake up speaking French or some language they learned at school.

"There's nothing wrong with a West Country accent, but it's a bit weird when you're from north London. My sisters, who were obviously so relieved that I'd actually woken up, were just laughing away at this stand-up comedy."

:rofl:

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Club-Tropi ... story.html
 
Yarrr! Oi'm George Moichal...yes, oi really yam...
 
didn't he pin it on a soap or something he was obsessed with at the time or did I imagine that
 
Barber woke from coma speaking fluent French and thinking he was Matthew McConaughey
Car crash victim Rory Curtis, 25, says the accident he was involved in changed his outlook on life, after he realised he wasn't a Hollywood actor

A barber has told how he woke up from a coma following a car crash speaking fluent French and thinking he was Matthew McConaughey.
Rory Curtis, 25, suffered horrific injuries after the vehicle he was driving hit a lorry before six cars ploughed into the side [of] him during torrential rain on the M42.
Firefighters battled to free him from the wreckage for 40 minutes at the scene in Tamworth, Staffordshire, before he was then airlifted [to] hospital.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...-and-thinking-he-was-Matthew-McConaughey.html
 
What a coincidence! I am at this moment watching Matthew McConaughey in a film, and I Googled his details a few minutes ago!
 
Quite a lot of autistic people, myself included, have accents that dont't fit people's expectations. We maybe acquire language differently - or maybe that's what the SLT sounded like? :D
 
The recent case with the barber who awoke from his coma speaking such perfect French that his African-French nurse asked his parents what part of France they came from, is extremely strange. I heard the interview with him on my drive home from work on Christmas eve. Previously, the only French he knew was some very limited vocabulary at school almost 10 years before. As he recovered from his brain haemorrhage, his linguistic fluency faded until now he can barely speak a word of French once again.

Has the medical establishment come up with any possible explanation for this truly Fortean occurrence?
 
You have to assume he'd seen a few French films or holidayed in France since his school lessons, but that would mean we have perfect recall even of things we've forgotten, they're just stored away unable to be accessed until... well, until a trauma like this. Any way you look at it, it's incredible and further research would be welcome.
 
Texas woman has foreign accent syndrome after jaw surgery

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston-area woman's accent sounds completely different since she underwent jaw surgery in December, and doctors say she might have a neurological condition called foreign accent syndrome.

In a KTRK-TV (http://abc13.co/28Q4OkZ ) video posted online, Lisa Alamia's ... accent swings between various British accents and a faint Australian twang.

Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition that can result from trauma or an injury to the area of the brain that controls speech. The cause is often unknown, but it has been linked to strokes, head injuries and psychiatric conditions. Speech therapy can help patients restore their usual accents.

Dr. Toby Yaltho says he believes she has the rare condition. ...

SOURCE: https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-woman-foreign-accent-syndrome-jaw-surgery-162442831.html
 
Here's another one ...

Arizona Woman Wakes Up with British Accent
An Arizona woman woke up speaking with a British accent, even though she's lived in the U.S. all her life, according to news reports.

The woman, Michelle Myers, said that in 2015 she went to bed with a "blinding headache" and woke up sounding British, according to ABC affiliate KNXV. Her across-the-pond accent has remained for the last two years.

"Everybody only sees or hears Mary Poppins" when they listen to her speak, Myers told KNXV.

Previously, Myers said she has woken up speaking in Irish and Australian accents, but on both of those occasions, the accents lasted for only a week.

Myers has been diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome (FAS), a disorder in which a person experiences a sudden change to their speech so that they sound like they are speaking in a foreign accent, according to The University of Texas at Dallas. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/61738-arizona-woman-wakes-up-with-british-accent.html
 
My own related experience: creating "South African" characters for fiction, based on past acquaintances, but not much else. To get background detail right I spent a lot of time listening to South African stuff on YouTube - both songs and spoken discourse. Just to get into the mindset. And without really meaning to,,, all of a sudden it "clicked", and apparently I can (at will) speak English with what listeners agree is a convinncing Saffie accent. Not one exaggerated for comic effect - which is the kicker, it could so easily become that (shades of Spitting Image doing the "Never met a nice South African" song) - but natural and everyday. Apparently it's got a Natal/KWZ twang to it. Is this normal? Abnormal? Only to be expected? Or just lekker, bro? i'm wondering if this might be a less drastic version of the medical syndrome detailed here...
 
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To be honest, that's not a very convincing British accent. I wonder do the initial observers label what they hear and that has an effect on the sufferer?

Good point ... I wonder how many of these cases involve a modified accent that evolves into an ascribed style in response to feedback from others.
 
Good point ... I wonder how many of these cases involve a modified accent that evolves into an ascribed style in response to feedback from others.

I think you're onto something.

An English person hearing that for the first time may not have recognised it as an English accent.

There may be some sort of transference involved that directs the outcome.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/31/experience-i-woke-from-coma-speaking-french

"When I started coming round I was moved to my local hospital. The strangest thing was that the first words I spoke were French. A friend asked the nurses whether he should speak to me in French; they thought it was a good idea, to encourage communication. So he would ask me a question in French, and I would reply in fluent French. No one knew why, but I had done both German and French at O-level almost 30 years earlier. After a while, the doctors decided speaking French was not helping me, because I’m English. So posters were put on the wall asking people not to speak in French. "

It's almost frustrating, from a sense of fortean wonder perspective, when they hone in on some past exposure to the language (in this case she did it at O level), as it tends to be used as an obvious "case closed" explanation whether it is or not. But whatever the mechanism, its fascinating.
 
Does she still speak French 'fluently' ? And how fluent was she? Where the nurses French or student of french? Being French myself, I would have liked to meet her, talk to her and judge for myself how good her accent was. It would have been really interesting to hear if she had a regional french accent or a very strong english one.
Also, she said, 'I have no intention of visiting France'... Nice...
 
Also, she said, 'I have no intention of visiting France'.
I don't think she was passing any comment on France or its attractions...she was saying that in anticipation of anyone assuming she had some deep interest in or connection with the country which would make her use of the language less extraordinary. France was not, she appears to be saying, a place that was in any way on her mind.
 
Head injuries do a lot of strange things. We don't know how the brain recuperates, but it can.

I read a book several years written by a doctor, and I cannot remember the name. The book was about how the medical world once viewed the brain as a mechanism/machine and now is changing the model to one of plasticity.
 
I also wonder how fluent her accent would have been, having only studied the language to O level 30 years previously. Still fascinating though. Having said that some people seem to have an ear for languages. My father had to leave school at 16 but studied German for a year before he left. Some 30 years later he visited Germany on a couple of occasions and the locals apparently refused to believe he was not German. (could of course trying to be kind). He could easily translate German when I was studying it in the early 70's , some 40 years after he had been at school. The brain is a strange thing indeed.
I do recall many years ago a patient in the North West awakening from an induced coma (due to brain injury) speaking Spanish even though he had never learned the language. A Spanish nurse was brought in to communicate with him. Fortunately he recovered fully, but could no longer speak Spanish.
 
I used to love Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious world when I was a kid. There was one episode about reincarnation. One of the people featured was a Swedish woman, who believed she had been an English Milk Maid in a previous life. The reason being that she could sing a rare English folk song from that time under hypnosis, but could not speak English when conscious.As it transpired, she had unknowingly seen the song in printed form in a museum,and it had stayed in her subconscious. Another man had claimed to be Greek in a previous life citing a similar reason, that he could speak Greek. With the man he had flicked through a magazine with Greek language printed in it and again had stored this info in his subconscious. The brain is an incredible machine.
 
Head injuries do a lot of strange things. We don't know how the brain recuperates, but it can.

I read a book several years written by a doctor, and I cannot remember the name. The book was about how the medical world once viewed the brain as a mechanism/machine and now is changing the model to one of plasticity.
Ahh, The Brain That Changes itself by Norman Doige. A very interesting read
 
An incident that appeared (briefly) in the Fortean Times a few years ago was that that of Matej Kus, a speedway rider who was knocked out for 45 minutes whilst riding for Berwick Bandits. I remembered reading about it because they are (or were) my local team.

Link here.

"Yesterday he added: "It's unbelievable that I was speaking English like that, especially without an accent.

Hopefully I can pick English up over the winter for the start of next season so I'll be able to speak it without someone having to hit me over the head first."
 
I also wonder how fluent her accent would have been, having only studied the language to O level 30 years previously. Still fascinating though. Having said that some people seem to have an ear for languages. My father had to leave school at 16 but studied German for a year before he left. Some 30 years later he visited Germany on a couple of occasions and the locals apparently refused to believe he was not German. (could of course trying to be kind). He could easily translate German when I was studying it in the early 70's , some 40 years after he had been at school. The brain is a strange thing indeed.
I do recall many years ago a patient in the North West awakening from an induced coma (due to brain injury) speaking Spanish even though he had never learned the language. A Spanish nurse was brought in to communicate with him. Fortunately he recovered fully, but could no longer speak Spanish.

I'm one of those people. I recently started learning Swedish and it didn't take long at all for me to get fluent in the course material. I also once picked up Italian to the point where I could haggle in the markets after only a few days of being there
 
I also wonder how fluent her accent would have been, having only studied the language to O level 30 years previously. Still fascinating though. Having said that some people seem to have an ear for languages. My father had to leave school at 16 but studied German for a year before he left. Some 30 years later he visited Germany on a couple of occasions and the locals apparently refused to believe he was not German. (could of course trying to be kind). He could easily translate German when I was studying it in the early 70's , some 40 years after he had been at school. The brain is a strange thing indeed.
I do recall many years ago a patient in the North West awakening from an induced coma (due to brain injury) speaking Spanish even though he had never learned the language. A Spanish nurse was brought in to communicate with him. Fortunately he recovered fully, but could no longer speak Spanish.

I find this fascinating.

Yes the human brain is an amazing thing.

There was an incident some years back where a (British) lady who had sufferd trauma to the brain through an accident, had awoken in hospital speaking English but in a Chinese accent.

The documentary makers rather patronisingly started off the hour long doc, by her ordering a Chinese take-a-way on the telephone.

It was very funny though.
 
I'm one of those people. I recently started learning Swedish and it didn't take long at all for me to get fluent in the course material. I also once picked up Italian to the point where I could haggle in the markets after only a few days of being there
Interesting. I've often wondered whether the ability to pick up languages goes along with a better than average memory (mine is poor). Do you have a good memory?
 
I find this fascinating.

Yes the human brain is an amazing thing.

There was an incident some years back where a (British) lady who had sufferd trauma to the brain through an accident, had awoken in hospital speaking English but in a Chinese accent.

The documentary makers rather patronisingly started off the hour long doc, by her ordering a Chinese take-a-way on the telephone.

It was very funny though.
This will be the one:


I wouldn't say this is particularly a 'Chinese' accent, though parts of the rhythm and phonemes here and there match. At other points I hear Jamaican and 'African' (this is much broader category than 'Chinese' of course). I guess the point is it's an auditory illusion: because her speech patterns are hard to place, we end up matching the bits that we can to a style of speaking we recognise, then filling in the blanks.

As far as I understand, most of 'foreign accent syndrome' is due to this kind of pareidolia, but cases of people apparently being able to speak a whole new language suddenly are another thing entirely. As others have said, it would be great to be able to fact check the news in the OP and see if she can really speak French.

I wonder if cryptomnesia might be involved – perhaps all her O-level French was lying dormant in her memory for all this time, and a forced rewiring of the brain caused it to resurface for some reason.

Sometimes paranormal experiencers also develop sudden new talents (painting, singing) after their experiences. I wonder if the phenomena are related – in both cases we seem to have an area of the brain opening up following a significant event.
 

Here's a Texan woman with an 'English' accent. It's pretty close actually but a little bit off. You'll notice she puts a glottal stop when she says 'kidding', which I don't think is present in any accent in England. It might sound English to Americans though, because we may use a glottal stop for the 't' sound, and in some American accents 't' is pronounced very like 'd'. So presumably in her native accent 'kidding' and 'kitten' are pronounced as homophones. They aren't in English accents, but she is still treating them as the same. (I read a very interesting article or maybe reddit post about this phenomenon. Basically where Americans go wrong doing British accents [and vice-versa, I'm sure] is that they won't notice the difference between sounds that are merged in their own accents. For example, a Californian will pronounce both 'cot' and 'caught' as 'caht'. When it comes to 'translating' to an English accent, they will keep the merger and choose one of the vowel sounds for both, for example pronouncing both 'cot' and 'caught' as 'caught'. "My baby is sleeping in her caught".)

It's hard to tell if the rhythm of speech is different, as it clearly is in the first example, but the phonemes have been changed. One of the reasons the lady sounds 'Chinese' in the first example is that her timing resembles the syllable-timed rhythms of Chinese languages, i.e. syllables are given equal emphasis and time, which is not usually the case in English.
 
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