Science & Technology

English woman wakes up with Italian accent

By T.K. Randall
October 2, 2014

Image: Inside My Head
Credit: Andrew Mason / CC BY 2.0 (adapted) What would you do if you woke up one morning and discovered that you had started speaking with a different accent ?

Eight years ago the mother-of-two had been taken to hospital due to a rare brain condition that left her completely unable to speak. When her voice finally did return however she discovered to her horror that she no longer recognized it and that she was now only able to speak in a distinct European accent.

"I feel like I've been robbed - now I'm either Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish," she said.Only a few cases of the remarkably unusual condition have ever been recorded and doctors are still a long way from determining why it happens or how to cure it.

"We don't understand a lot about Foreign Accent Syndrome because it is very rare and cases are very sporadic," said Professor Rosemary Varley. "We take fluent speech for granted until it goes awry. It is one of the most complex speech movement behaviors in the body."

Kath has since been attempting to raise as much awareness as possible about the condition and recently appeared on ITV's "This Morning" programme to tell her story.

"I'm on here today to give other sufferers a voice," she said. "You don't realise what it is until it is gone. Just think for one moment if you lost the voice that you have today."

Source: Mirror

Tags: Foreign Accent Syndrome