A case of foreign accent syndrome, with follow-up clinical, Neuropsychological and phonetic descriptions

Neurogenic foreign accent syndrome: Articulatory setting, segments and prosody in a Dutch speaker

“…Significant changes in voice quality in FAS patients have been reported previously (Dankovicova, Gurd, Marshall, MacMahon, Stuart-Smith, Coleman, & Slater, 2001;Gurd et al, 1988;Ingram et al, 1992;Verhoeven et al, 2005): in all these cases there was a change towards creaky voice, which is the result of a tense laryngeal setting with a strongly increased medial compression of the vocal folds as well as an increased adductive tension on the arytenoids (Laver, 1984).…”

“…Furthermore, fundamental changes in F0 and intonation are often reported and mention is made of deviant prosodic patterns (Avila, Gonzàlez, Parcet, & Belloch, 2004), dysprosody (Villaverde-González, Fernández-Villalba, Moreno-Excribano, Aliás-Linares, & Garciá-Santos, 2003;Bakker, Apeldoorn, & Metz, 2004) and anomalous pitch (Denes, Trumper, Maddalon, & Romito, 1995). In addition, it is stated that intonation is 'strange' (Gurd et al, 1988), 'monotonous' (Berthier et al, 1991) or 'impaired' (Moen, 1990) with 'abnormal' F0 patterns (Berthier et al, 1991) and F0 excursions which are either 'too small' (Berthier et al, 1991) or 'exceptionally large' (Gurd et al, 1988). It is regretful that many of these statements are based on impressionistic observation and are mostly left unsupported by acoustic measurements.…”

“…In addition to changes in speech rhythm, occasional problems with word stress placement are sometimes observed (Gurd, Bessell, Bladon, & Bamford, 1988). Furthermore, fundamental changes in F0 and intonation are often reported and mention is made of deviant prosodic patterns (Avila, Gonzàlez, Parcet, & Belloch, 2004), dysprosody (Villaverde-González, Fernández-Villalba, Moreno-Excribano, Aliás-Linares, & Garciá-Santos, 2003;Bakker, Apeldoorn, & Metz, 2004) and anomalous pitch (Denes, Trumper, Maddalon, & Romito, 1995).…”

French without tears? Foreign accent syndrome

“…The features may be abnormal for English but normal characteristics of natural language. 3 This case underlines not only the very complex mechanisms involved in speech production: accent is a potent marker of personality, origin, culture, class and identity. 4 Although the patient reported here was little concerned by the foreign accent, in an early report, just after the end of the German occupation a Norwegian woman suffered ostracism when she developed an apparent German accent from this cause.…”

“…2 Perforation may be symptomless and the offending item found on radiological investigation or at laparotomy for other reasons. 3 Reduced palatal sensation from wearing dentures, the consumption of very hot or cold drinks, excess alcohol and rapid eating are all associated with the ingestion of foreign bodies in adults, as is the habitual 'chewing' of toothpicks. 2 Endoscopic management is preferable to laparotomy if the diagnosis is made at the time of ingestion and should be performed early to prevent perforation or bleeding.…”