Foreign Accent Syndrome

[Beverly Flanigan]

Anything vaguely different, but "nice-sounding," is called British.  And
"deep Indiana drawl" indeed--whatever that means.

At 12:31 PM 11/25/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
>>Subject:      Re: Foreign Accent Syndrome
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>A supposed example of Foreign Accent Syndrome:
>>
>>http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2222004
>>
>>"An American woman told how how she suddenly developed a British accent
>>after suffering a stroke.
>>
>>"When Tiffany Roberts, 57, recovered from the stroke she found she had
>>an accent placed somewhere between East London and the West Country.
>>
>>"Even the pitch of her voice changed, becoming much higher than the
>>deep Indiana drawl she once had."
>
>This was actually on the news last night.  To my ears, she did NOT
>have a British accent.  There were a few words here and there that
>might be interpreted as vaguely British in vowel quality, but that
>was about it.
>
>Rima