A WOMAN has revealed that she’s started talking in a full-blown Italian accent after having a stroke, despite never having visited the country.
Althia Bryden, 58, who is retired and lives in London with husband Winston, 63, suffered the stroke in May last year and was initially unable to speak.
She was also not able to feel the upper right portion of her body for over three months due to a carotid web in her neck, which doctors believe could have caused the stroke.
When she was able to have it removed by surgery last August she was left dumfounded when she was finally able to talk.
Although she could speak, it was in an Italian accent.
Speaking on This Morning, she said: “I hadn’t heard my voice for a long time. When I spoke, I thought, ‘Who is it?’ I didn’t realize it was me.
“So you’re speaking, and you think it’s somebody else talking?
“Yes! I looked behind me in my hospital bed, wondering, ‘Who is speaking to me?’
“It was a big shock.
“I thought maybe because she had frightened me from my sleep—because, you know, in the hospital, they wake you so early in the morning—it was a dream.”
TV host Alison Hammond replied: “That must have been so weird, like somebody had taken over, like another character.”
Husband Winston shared how weird it had been for him when he arrived at the hospital and heard the Italian accent.
He said: “When I came into the ward, I looked at her and said, ‘Hi, darling.’
“She responded, ‘Hi, Bab,’ but the way she said it—I actually took a step back.
“She spoke again, and I was shocked.”
As well as adopting the new accent, Althia admitted she now slips Italian phrases into conversations, such as “mamma mia”, “bambino” and “si”, and has adopted hand gestures too.
Althia continued: “My life feels like a contradiction.
“I’m happy to speak again, but now I’m searching for my old sound, and it’s nowhere to be found.
“I feel like a stranger in my own body, and nobody can tell me why this is happening to me.
“I keep asking, ‘Why is this happening to me? Why do I speak like this?’ But nobody has an answer.
“I’ve realised it is a blessing. I think about the fact that I couldn’t speak before, and now I can.
“I don’t want to be ungrateful for my blessing.”
New accent cure?
Professor Nick Miller, an expert in neuroscience at Newcastle University, gave his views on Althia’s Foreign Accent Syndrome.
He shared: “It’s the label given to instances where someone has a stroke or another neurological disorder and suddenly starts sounding like they’re speaking with a foreign accent.
“They may have never spoken that language before, never been to that country, and never associated with that language.
What is foreign accent syndrome and what are the signs you must know?
Foreign accent syndrome is a rare speech disorder in which the person who has it sounds like they are from another country, experts at Winchester Hospital said.
Problems could last for months, years or could be permanent.
Symptoms of the condition might include:
- making vowel sounds that are longer and lower (changes English ‘yeah’ to German ‘jah’
- Changing sound quality by moving the tongue or jaw differently while speaking
- Substituting words or using the wrong words to describe something
- Putting sentences together the wrong way
“When a stroke affects parts of the brain that control speech—such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords—it alters the strength, speed, and range of movements, which changes how speech sounds.
“This creates subtle shifts in pronunciation and rhythm that might resemble a foreign accent.”
When asked if there is a cure, he said: “The prognosis is good.
“Treatment can focus on speech therapy to help regain original pronunciation, or for functional cases, cognitive behavioral therapy to help regain control over speech.”
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