Rare Case of Foreign Accent Syndrome: She Was a Geordie

[wolram]

But after a stroke she woke up with a jamaican accent, doctors said she has a rare case of foreign accent syndrome.

In 1999 an american woman Tiffany Roberts was left with a mix of cockney and west country burr after a stroke.

 

[Cyrus]

When I have my stroke, I want to talk in Jive and Ebonics.

 

[MeJennifer]

But after a stroke she woke up with a jamaican accent, doctors said she has a rare case of foreign accent syndrome.

In 1999 an american woman Tiffany Roberts was left with a mix of cockney and west country burr after a stroke.

Here is a link http://www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/selflearn/Britishaccent.htm" .

A quote:

"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.
A part of me had died during the stroke

Four years on, she still struggles to convince people that she is a born and bred American.

"People in America accuse me of lying when I say I was born in Indiana.

"They would say 'What are you saying that for? Where in England are you from?'

There is a simple explanation for all this. Her speech was impared and people thought she spoke with a foreign acccent.

Also the article states:

Her accent is a mixture of English cockney and West Country.

Which is of course complete baloney, I do not believe a word about it.
It may sound a bit like it but this is "National Enquirer" level of reporting.
And that from the BBC News.

 

[Danger]

You can giggle all you want, but I've heard of this syndrome before, going back at least a couple of decades. There's even been speculation that such was the basis for the old Jesus-freak types claiming that people spoke 'in tongues'. Supposedly, it's a weird form of Wernicke's aphasia. I'm afraid that I have no idea where to find the references. Given my educational background, it was probably in SciAm.

 

[Evo]

MeJennifer is correct, they aren't actually speaking with any certain accent, their speech is affected and people "thinks it sounds like" such and such. After my dad's stroke he sounded like Mickey Mouse. It was horrible.

We've discussed this in another thread. People aren't actually suddenly knowing and speaking in other accents, it's just what is perceived by the listener.

 

[Danger]

Was that what made you such a Disney fan?

 

[Math Is Hard]

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/aphasia.htm

In contrast to Broca's aphasia, damage to the temporal lobe may result in a fluent aphasia that is called Wernicke's aphasia. Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia may speak in long sentences that have no meaning, add unnecessary words, and even create new "words." For example, someone with Wernicke's aphasia may say, "You know that smoodle pinkered and that I want to get him round and take care of him like you want before," meaning "The dog needs to go out so I will take him for a walk." Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia usually have great difficulty understanding speech and are therefore often unaware of their mistakes. These individuals usually have no body weakness because their brain injury is not near the parts of the brain that control movement.

"You know that smoodle pinkered and that I want to get him round and take care of him like you want before"
Okay, to me that sounds incredibly British-slangy. If Wol wrote that I wouldn't bat an eye.

 

[Evo]

"You know that smoodle pinkered and that I want to get him round and take care of him like you want before"
Okay, to me that sounds incredibly British-slangy. If Wol wrote that I wouldn't bat an eye.

I was just going to say "that's Wolram"!

 

[MeJennifer]

After my dad's stroke he sounded like Mickey Mouse. It was horrible.

I can imagine that, seeing that happen to a person you know your whole life.

 

[wolram]

Me geliefan mine feond astandan :tongue 2 :

 

[wolram]

Hang on did i just say cobblers or rowlocks

 

[Math Is Hard]

Oh, give it up, Wol! You're just trying to buy a ticket into our labs to be probed and prodded by hot, nubile UCLA grad students.

 

[wolram]

Oh, give it up, Wol! You're just trying to buy a ticket into our labs to be probed and prodded by hot, nubile UCLA grad students.

Fight or flight, i am just so torn, sod it, i lay down my arms.:!)

 

[Math Is Hard]

Fight or flight, i am just so torn, sod it, i lay down my arms.:!)

Fine. I'll tell them to be gentle with you.

 

[Ouabache]

She was a Geordie

Okay, i'll bite, what's a Geordie?

First time i heard the term, was in a Mark Knopfler lyric in Sailing To Philadelphia

I am Jeremiah Dixon, I am a Geordie boy..
Does it have to do with a King George?

There are other unique references in there too such as:

This Baker's Boy From The West Country and
A World Away From The Coaly Tyne

though I have no idea what he is referencing..

 

[Rach3]

When I have my stroke...

 

[Rach3]

After my dad's stroke he sounded like Mickey Mouse. It was horrible.

Ever hear Ed Witten speak? He too sounds very much like Mickey Mouse. It's quite a mismatched voice for him, he's a rather tall and imposing figure. In his case it's his natural accent, I believe.

Good thing these posts are anonymous...

 

[Cyrus]

to your

 

[Kurdt]

Okay, i'll bite, what's a Geordie?

First time i heard the term, was in a Mark Knopfler lyric in Sailing To Philadelphia

I am Jeremiah Dixon, I am a Geordie boy..
Does it have to do with a King George?

There are other unique references in there too such as:

This Baker's Boy From The West Country and
A World Away From The Coaly Tyne

though I have no idea what he is referencing..

I be a geordie! Geordie is a term for people born in newcastle and comes from the George Stephenson mining safety lamp which was used extensively by people from Newcastle who were mainly coal miners in the 18th century.

Here is the wiki entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie

The original derivation of the term on the wiki page being related to King George is not a widely held view here in Newcastle. Anyway Geordie's are distinguishable by their dialect and I found an amusing page to convert english to geordie.

http://www.geordie.org.uk/

 

[Ouabache]

Very good Kurdt, you be a Geordie ay? Pleased to meet you!
Thanks for those references. I learned something new today. The Newcastle dialect appears quite interesting.

Perhaps the lyric "A World Away From The Coaly Tyne" ties in with the same coal mining industry in the 1700s.

 

[Evo]

Ever hear Ed Witten speak? He too sounds very much like Mickey Mouse. It's quite a mismatched voice for him, he's a rather tall and imposing figure. In his case it's his natural accent, I believe.

Good thing these posts are anonymous...

Yes, but it's not like Mickey Mouse, it's just very soft and feminine. I was really surprised the first time I heard him speak.

 

[zoobyshoe]

We did discuss this in another thread and the issue of whether or not people are speaking in another accent or with an impairment of their original accent remains debated.

I'm an American but can affect a resonably convincing British accent. The question is: when I do this am I utilizing different neurons than usual, or using fewer of the same neurons? I believe these kinds of strokes are forcing these people to utilize neurons they don't normally employ for vocal control by destroying the ones they normally use.

In other words, there are probably many more neurons dedicated to various kinds of vocal production than any given accent takes full advantage of. When some of these are destroyed in a stroke, these people are left with neurons that will operate the vocal mechanisms, but not in the same way as before. In the case of Evo's father this would mean that all but the neurons for control of high pitch were destroyed; ones he always had but never normally used.

So, the question is really whether a Frenchman or Swede, or whatever is utilizing a different batch of dedicated neurons than an American when they speak.

 

[Kurdt]

If you look at some of the geordie dialect in the links and try and speak it you'll find that with aspeech impediment its not to hard to come up sounding jamaican.

 

[zoobyshoe]

If you look at some of the geordie dialect in the links and try and speak it you'll find that with aspeech impediment its not to hard to come up sounding jamaican.

But, as Danger pointed out, all kinds of accents result from this kind of stroke. I've read accounts of people sounding British, French, and Swedish after a stroke like this.

 

[Kurdt]

Ahh good point. WEll at least some can be explained by sounding like the accent in the first place I suppose.

 

[Ouabache]

Ever hear Ed Witten speak? He too sounds very much like Mickey Mouse. It's quite a mismatched voice for him, he's a rather tall and imposing figure. In his case it's his natural accent, I believe.

Yes, but it's not like Mickey Mouse, it's just very soft and feminine. I was really surprised the first time I heard him speak.

I've heard other men speak in that same pitch, so I wouldn't describe it as feminine. First time I heard Witten's voice was on a 1991 PBS video of Stephen Hawking's: Brief History of Time. In the topic of string theory, it was mentioned that the mathematics to fully describe superstring theory, had not been discovered yet. I seem to recall Michio Kaku point out that one person far above all others, who has best chance at developing the mathematics is Ed http://www.superstringtheory.com/people/witten.html. I believe he is still a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (the same institute where Einstein worked in the U.S.).