FOREIGN ACCENT SYNDROME: WAKING UP FOREIGN
Although extremely rare, it’s possible for people to suddenly begin to speak with an accent they’ve never associated with. Since foreign accent syndrome was first recognised in 1907, there have only been around 100 cases of this happening. In these cases, people have complained of headaches or sustained injury to the head through strokes or other traumatic brain injuries before waking up with a new, foreign accent.
In 2015, Michelle Myers from Arizona went to sleep with what she described as “a blinding headache”. When she woke up and spoke, she was surprised to hear a British accent in place of her usual American one. Although startling, this wasn’t the first time it had happened to her. In previous instances, Myers had adopted Irish and Australian accents, but unlike her long-term British accent, these incidents only lasted a week. Scientists think that foreign accent syndrome changes people’s pronunciation due to injury in Broca’s area of the brain.