Woman Wakes Up With Foreign Accent Syndrome

She has never been to Ireland and seems to have a rare condition: ‘foreign accent syndrome’

 

 

An Australian Asian woman who woke up from surgery on her tonsils, speaking in what seems to be an Irish accent, has been documenting her experience on TikTok.

The 27 year old Brisbane dentist, An Gie Yen, decided to post regular videos of her new accent when people dubbed her a hoax. Otherwise well, Yen was sent home to recover from her surgery, with doctors suggesting her vocal chords would heal over time.

As her story travelled across the world, experts recognized that Yen – who has never been to Ireland – is suffering from the very rare condition, known as “foreign accent syndrome”.

First reported by a French neurologist, Pierre Marie in 1907, foreign accent syndrome usually occurs after a stroke but can also develop from head trauma, migraines, seizures or surgery to the mouth or face. It results in the person losing their natural accent and speaking with a different pitch, intonation and word pronunciation.

About 100 cases of foreign accent syndrome have been reported worldwide, and it has been found to be more common in women than men.

Experts say that the speech patterns that are part of this extremely rare speech disorder are not a real foreign accent but a damaged form of the person’s native accent. Even Yen admits that what appears to be her Irish – or even Northern Irish accent – seems to come and go a little yet it is distinctly different to how she spoke before she had her tonsils removed. She can even sing higher notes than she could before her surgery.

Some people with foreign accent syndrome find that their speech patterns revert to normal over time.