Stroke gives woman foreign accent

July 4, 2006 11:31 PM

UK stroke victim wakes up with a Jamaican accent Linda Walker has apparently developed foreign accents after waking up following a stroke.
posted by ArunK (35 comments total)

Hey, if we're going one link BBC news posts, let me improve things with the wiki link: Foreign Accent Syndrome.
posted by wilful at 11:38 PM on July 4, 2006

Metafilter: Stuff you saw three days ago everywhere else
posted by nightchrome at 11:44 PM on July 4, 2006

UK stroke victim wakes up with a Jamaican accent

*looks up from newspaper*

"Maan, dis be worse dan de thing wit Jah-Jah Binks, maan."

"No sheet, maan."

(Yes, I'm going to Hell.)
posted by Ryvar at 11:49 PM on July 4, 2006

nightcrome: impotently pissing in threads instead of coming up with his own.
posted by freebird at 12:00 AM on July 5, 2006

Do people with Foreign Accent Syndrome over come up talking like pirates?
posted by sien at 12:08 AM on July 5, 2006

Because that would be awesome.
posted by puke & cry at 12:20 AM on July 5, 2006 [1 favorite]

freebird: exactly
posted by nightchrome at 12:23 AM on July 5, 2006

I hadn't seen it before, and for what it's worth, I'd only read about Foreign Accent Syndrome so this was the first time I got to see a video of someone who suffers from it. Thanks for the post.

You can definitely hear what sounds like a Jamaican accent popping up in certain sentences. I also thought the anchors were a little quick to laugh at the woman when she was clearly not amused with what had happened to her. It be funny if it was temporary or if you could learn to control it, but if you have no say in the matter (no pun intended) it's gotta suck.
posted by Alexandros at 12:36 AM on July 5, 2006

Foreign Accent Syndrome is probably misnamed. It should be called something like "scrambled phonology syndrome" because the accents that sufferers "acquire" only superficially resemble real-world accents. If you're interested, you can read the reactions of an honest-to-God phonologist to a previous story about FAS here.
posted by The Tensor at 12:41 AM on July 5, 2006

The thing is though that a Geordie accent (my ex-stepdad was one) already sounds like a Jamaican accent.
I'm not kidding, it does.
posted by Flashman at 12:58 AM on July 5, 2006

Flashman - Only if you slow it down. A lot.
posted by MrMustard at 1:48 AM on July 5, 2006

Aye. Ah'm clemmin. Howay lass, less ge' a goot curry.
posted by randomination at 1:51 AM on July 5, 2006

I'm a Geordie and to me she sounded like a Geordie with a speech impediment and halting delivery caused by partial paralysis due to a stroke...
posted by A189Nut at 2:11 AM on July 5, 2006

Her accent is Jamaican? I thought it was more some kind of space potato-man.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 2:58 AM on July 5, 2006

Samson Simpson, l stick by my story ! l'm from Jamaica.
lf l wasn't Jamaican, then why would l wear this hat? Hmm?
posted by horsemuth at 3:21 AM on July 5, 2006

A Half-Baked reference? On MeFi? *the mind boggles*

"They killed killer bee!"
posted by Dantien at 5:41 AM on July 5, 2006

i hear the stroke happened right neeh da beach.
posted by isopraxis at 6:12 AM on July 5, 2006

If I'm ever in a coma, I'm using this as an excuse to talk like Borat when I wake up.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:32 AM on July 5, 2006

Mrs Walker said: "My sister-in-law said that I sounded Italian, then my brother said I sounded Slovakian and someone else said I sounded French Canadian.

"But the latest is that I sound Jamaican, I just don't know how to explain it.

"Everybody is obviously hearing me differently. ...

She sounds different, and people map that difference to whatever makes sense to them. I can "hear" both French-Canadian and Jamaican in her voice only because she stresses the last syllable of words where most native English speakers don't, plus some of her consonants are clipped (the initial "h" in words disappears and her "th" sounds sometimes turn to "d"). Meanwhile, the "o" in "go" is still very Geordie.

What I'm wondering is if FAS patients sing with an accent, given the claims that regional accents disappear in song. (Yeah, tell that to Billy Bragg.)
posted by rosemere at 6:45 AM on July 5, 2006

Hmm. Must be something about Jamaican accents. I take care of a young man who had huge bi-frontal brain tumor who started speaking with a Jamaican accent. I thought it might have been his Jamaican grandmother's influence, but perhaps not ...
posted by scblackman at 6:50 AM on July 5, 2006

Rosemere makes a good point about her just sounding different and the listener's interpretation playing a large part in 'placing' the accent.

I get to play this all the time as my (English) accent is a bizarre amalgamation of Finnish, American English, British English and my personal intepretation on how things should be pronounced. No additional brain trauma required to confuse the hell out of people.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:22 AM on July 5, 2006

*sucks teeth*

blood clart
posted by derbs at 7:47 AM on July 5, 2006

Thus proving that brain-damaged accent is always the same, whether the damage is caused by a stroke or excessive pot smoking.

*runs*

/Any offense contained in this comment should be considered a bonus.
posted by qvantamon at 8:46 AM on July 5, 2006

The woman was interviewed on As It Happens last night - starts at 17:18 of part 1.
posted by Chuckles at 10:10 AM on July 5, 2006

Man, so that's what I have!

I woke up this morning and I spoke english with a dutch accent. It's in my brain...!
posted by jouke at 10:24 AM on July 5, 2006

So THAT's what happened to Madonna...
posted by wfc123 at 10:58 AM on July 5, 2006

I don't know how pretentious Madonna is, but when I lived in the US for a year, I acquired an American accent. Now back in Germany listening to BFBS broadcasts (British forces radio), I seem to have moved back to the British pronounciation I learned in school. ( but the r seems to stay)
posted by mmkhd at 12:32 PM on July 5, 2006

I don't know how pretentious Madonna is, but when I lived in the US for a year, I acquired an American accent.

If memory serves, Madonna's bizarre new accent showed up before she was living in the UK.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:35 PM on July 5, 2006

And in addition I want to say that Madonna has been overall bizarre for a long time now.
posted by mmkhd at 12:40 PM on July 5, 2006

When this came up on the radio at work, my Jamaican co-worker pointedly said that her accent sounded nothing like anything he had ever heard. Take that as you will.
posted by saturnine at 2:52 PM on July 5, 2006

But... is she feelin' irie an' t'ing, mon? OH SHIT! I've had one too!
posted by Decani at 5:50 PM on July 5, 2006

I call FARK on this one.
posted by sunshinesky at 7:21 PM on July 5, 2006

The voices in my head sound like Groundskeeper Willie.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:14 PM on July 5, 2006

"They killed killer bee!"

It's "They killed Killer, B!" My god.

krinklyfig: "It's the Shinning!"
posted by spiderwire at 11:18 PM on July 5, 2006

But what if this happens to a mime?
posted by TwelveTwo at 2:48 AM on July 6, 2006