7 replies to this topic

[Hostile]

By staff writers

July 07, 2008 02:29pm
THE case of a woman who suffered a stroke and now speaks like a Canadian sailor has doctors baffled.

Canadian woman Rosemarie Dore’s new accent has confused researchers because most people suffering “foreign-accent syndrome” (FAS) speak with accents from other countries.

Researchers say the 50-year-old now speaks like a Canadian east coast resident, using what is described as "Maritime" accent.

Ms Dore’s case is detailed in the latest edition of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.

Alexandre Sevigny, cognitive science professor at McMaster University in Canada, said Ms Dore’s speech had slowed and she now pronounced the words “that” and “think” as “dat” and “tink”.

“It is a fascinating case because Rosemarie has never visited the Maritimes, nor has she been exposed to anyone with an East Coast accent,” Dr Sevigny said.

“Her family lineage is Irish and Danish, and neither of her parents ever lived anywhere but in southern Ontario.”

Dr Sevigny and his colleague Karin Humphreys said Ms Dore’s family had noticed a change in her accent after she had a stroke two years ago.

“Most people meeting her for the first time assume she is from out east,” Dr Humphreys said.

“What we are seeing in this case is a change in some of the very precise mechanisms of speech-motor planning in the brain's circuitry.”

While cases of FAS are rare, several have made headlines in recent years.

In 2004, British woman Lynda Walker, 60, lost her thick northern English accent after having a stroke and began speaking with a Jamaican accent.

In 1999, US woman Tiffany Roberts developed a strong English accent that British newspaper The Telegraph described as “a cross between Eliza Doolittle and Sybil Fawlty”.

http://www.news.com....5002700,00.html

[Soul]

That is weird .

[some_weirdGuy]

um, your link leads to a story about a lamb with seven legs... not anything about peoples accents changing....

[Hostile]

Fixed, thanks for the heads up.

[MSpencer]

I wouldn't have a problem having a stroke and speaking Queen's English, or even speaking like a Russian, anything in the world but sounding like a Northerner or someone from the Canadian Maritimes.

[Vortigern]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with sounding like a northerner! Although I would quite like to have a Deep South accent instead of mine It would make it much easier to pull off my cowboy boots and similarly linked style of dress....

Edited by Vortigern, 23 July 2008 - 11:22 AM.

[Puppeteer]

I can't understand a lot of Northern accents. We southerners don't have accents, this is how the words are supposed to be pronounced

[Vortigern]

I know, I actually have a distinct Oxford accent, it's just my mum's from up north, so I have a lot of family up there, and I've always rather liked the accent. I have proper BBC pronunciation.

On that note, though, I'm going to university in Sheffield come September, and I'm quite looking forward to seeing whether my accent will change when surrounded by northerners, as I do often find myself suffering from what is commonly known as 'wandering accent syndrome'. It's a problem, especially while I was in South Africa a while back.... Their accents are really difficult to imitate.

Does anyone know why accents even exist? As far as I can tell after a great deal of thought, there is no reason for this. They just do. What's up with that?