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Posted on 04/20/2010 6:57:07 AM PDT by Artemis Webb
A British woman has suddenly started speaking with a Chinese accent after suffering a severe migraine, she said in comments quoted by British media Tuesday.
Sarah Colwill believes she has Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) which has caused her distinctive West Country drawl to be replaced with a Chinese twang, even though she has never even visited the country.
The 35-year-old from Plymouth, southwest England, is now undergoing speech therapy following an acute form of migraine last month which reportedly left her with a form of brain damage.
"I moved to Plymouth when I was 18 months old so I have always spoken like a local. But following one attack, an ambulance crew arrived and they said I definitely sounded Chinese," she said.
"I spoke to my stepdaughter on the phone from hospital and she didn't recognise who I was. She said I sounded Chinese. Since then, I have had my friends hanging up on me because they think I'm a hoax caller."
Colwill added: "The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice."
FAS has been documented around the world and is usually linked to a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It was first recorded in the early 20th century...
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Strange things happen with strokes. Ever notice that often stroke victims can’t speak but they can still curse?
Did you understand what you were saying in those languages? I had taken Spanish for several years and never felt fluent in the language until I dreamed in Spanish one night.
Yes, I did, ironically. I was more mystified why I wasn’t dreaming English. It was as though I was watching myself in a foreign film. I have a background in French and can read it pretty well but not the best at speaking it.
I have heard some theories on this type of phenomenon, that the brain stores all kinds of information such as what was heard in movies, read in books or overheard conversations that are recalled unconsciously. On the other side is reincarnation, transmigration of souls, etc. Nevertheless, it is very interesting. I speculated with my coworker that she might have seen a war movie with such a German pilot, but she could not recall or relate to such an event.
Well, I know I hear voices, just didn’t know they were from reincarnated foreigners! LOL.
I think I may have done that as well though I don’t recall any of it. My wife says I have talked in my sleep in a foreign language. Another time she said I talked in a deep southern accent about a “yankee patrol over yonder”. It’s wierd.
I’ve read theories that we are born with the memories of our ancestors. Crazy stuff!
replaced with a Chinese twang
Wonder if this Chinese twang can write like our Mark Twain.
“Yes, yes, speakee speakee... me Blitish consul.”
Hey now, that’s wasist.
attempted brainwash?
Did you get the reference? Note that it’s a quote.
Gee..never heard of that but the brain is an amazing organ.Having worked for a Neuropathologist for a while and having watched many Science Channel/PBS type documentaries on the brain I become more and more fascinated.
I saw a documentary once that focused on different cures for serious seizure disorders (epilepsy).One treatment (experimental,I think) was to sever the "corpus collosum" which connects the two hemispheres of the brain.In such patients you can,for example,put an easily identifiable object in their hand while they're blindfolded and they can't *tell* you (verbally) what it is they're holding but they can write it down.There were many other equally wierd things as well.I find stuff like that beyond amazing!
Ping list worthy?
Years ago, I did some rehabilitative craft work with home-bound stroke victims. One of the clients was an elderly man with aphasia and left side paralysis. He was a fluent curser, while everything else he tried to say was gibberish.
It was explained to me that people who habitually used some words/phrases before the stroke retained those because the synapses were so well-reinforced.
Signs only pointed to some neurological cause, the obvious first suspicion of stroke was ruled out. There was no outward sign of motor problems otherwise, as in gait, coordination, etc. He was quite physically active, involved in some natural habitat restoration activity (getting rid of invasive plant species in a prairie area), and still intellectually sharp. Not being able to communicate verbally must have been depressing.
Foreign Accent Syndrome
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