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Do you speak English? Laetitia, a 47 -year -old Sarthoise, has a very pronounced British accent, without mastering the language of Shakespeare. This particular diction appeared after an amygdal operation, 11 years ago. A confusing case.
“”You are a mystery for science!“”
In 2014, in fact, this mother must undergo a removal of the tonsils. Nothing unusual: her three children have already been operated before her. When she wakes up, she notes a change of voice but “grants it by importance.”I was thinking of speaking in a nasal way, like them “ she is expressed in The little mail. But it is not just a simple post-operative effect: Laetitia is really expressed with a pronounced English accent, which settles in the durably, without having ever lived in an English-speaking country.
After three months to speak like Jane Birkin, she consults the surgeon again, who remains taken aback: “You are not Anglo-Saxon? “he asks him, incredulous. And to add, disarmed: “You are a mystery to science. “ Consultations are linked without clear response. An ENT goes so far as to tell him that she is crazy. Finally, a hypothesis is advanced: an area of his brain would have been less irrigated during anesthesia.
A rare case of foreign accent syndrome
Although rare, this state has a name: it is called foreign accent syndrome. As its name suggests, it can give the patient an accent or more rarely the exclusive mastery of a language which is not his mother tongue (as the case of this Norwegian adolescent who could only speak English for 24 hours). These very rare cases occur after an accident, a stroke or an operation, as for Laetitia.
Foreign accent syndrome is an extremely rare neurological disorder. It generally manifests itself after a cranial shock, a stroke (stroke), a brain tumor or, more rarely, following surgery. This phenomenon is linked to lesions located in the head-to-parietal regions of the brain, key areas involved in language production.
During a previous article, Dr. Wilfrid Panon, a neurologist, recognized that the precise mechanisms of foreign accent syndrome are still poorly understood. “”What happened to this patient is not clear, she should benefit from advanced brain explorations, with an MRI and a TEP-Scan, for example, to identify the possible brain damage “, he explained on a similar case. A psychic origin was not to be ruled out either: “In some cases described by foreign accent syndromes, patients suffered from a psychiatric pathology, such as a conversion disorder also called hysteria” he added.
For the specialist, any hypothesis had to be handled with caution. One thing is certain: this type of case recalls how the human brain retains a part of mystery.
An accent she has made her side
Despite herself, Laetitia is now part of a handful of people to have suffered from foreign accent syndrome, which only has 150 cases in the world since its discovery in 1907. Her initial French accent has never returned, which forced her to adapt. He still happens to be taken for a Briton, in shops, and to avoid certain words, containing R and T, in which his accent is more understood. She sometimes laughs: “I say that I am French and that I have an English accent”. Sometimes people are curious and ask her questions, often they don’t believe it. The most amazing in history? Despite this accent, the mother has only a few very basic basics in English and could not follow a real conversation …
Today, Laetitia would simply like to be alone in this amazing adventure. “I would really like to meet a person who lives what I live” she concludes her interview. And converse from their experience, whatever the accent pronounced.