Talk:Foreign accent syndrome

message: What if this is the proof of that we actually have several lifes, and that you are getting the accent of a former self?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.255.133.48 (talk) 15:44, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh my, there are nuts where else you go!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.91.171.36 (talk) 21:21, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Former life

message: Im not sure but i think Sting suffered from this condition when he was a singer in The Police, he's from Newcastle but often sang with a Jamaican-esque accent like "Roxanne, you don' have to turn on de red light" but other times he would sing with his native accent, like "Message in a Bottle" no
: Former Spanish primer minister José María Aznar has the syndrome.  Humorists had a crack with his sudden outbursts of Mexicanized Spanish when he was visiting Bush in Texas.  In a recent press conference in Italy he spoke Spanish in a strange Italianized form.  --Amador 23:03, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Famous Sufferers? 

message: This July 3 "Evening Chronicle" article includes the paragraph about the Norwegian woman, word for word. And the article was last edited in April. Hmm. Sandstein 17:03, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Norwegian? Have borrowed some back! Martinevans123 (talk) 14:54, 26 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Newspaper plagiarises Wikipedia? 

message: Here is an artcile from the BBC's website from 2002 that would seem to have been at least partially plagiarised for the Wikipedia entry.
From the BBC page: 'To add insult to injury, some doctors dismissed the problem as more likely to be psychiatric in origin than physical.
Dr Jennfier Gurd, who led the research with phonetician Dr John Coleman, said: "The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us. 
"It is understandably quite traumatic for patients to find that their accent has changed."
Dr Coleman told BBC News Online: "There is a good likelihood in time you are going to improve and become more like you used to be."' 
Compared to the (later) Wikipedia entry: 'Usually, it is very traumatic for stroke patients to find that their accent has unexpectedly changed, usually adding insult to the previous, severe brain injury. Furthermore, many physicians have dismissed foreign accent syndrome, calling it psychological.'
'Dr. Jennifer Gurd and Dr. John Coleman, the latter a phonetician, have studied patients of this condition, and have found that the great majority are severely traumatized. However, Coleman believes that in time, patients may improve, regaining their former speaking abilities.'
:That's not plagiarism, at least from a legal standpoint. The fact that it has been removed from the article saddens me, as it is hypercorrection. Paraphrasing another work is perfectly legal, as long as the work is not fictional (and thus the actual fictional situation and characters are under copyright). Anyways, since we Wikipedians cannot do original research, our only hope is to paraphrase other works. As long as a reference is given, there is nothing academically wrong with it, either. It might be discouraged in school, where the focus is getting the students to learn to write for themselves (and allows original research), but that doesn't make it dishonest in an encyclopedic setting. I'll leave it to another editor to decide whether or not to re-add the information. 
:-- trlkly 20:37, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: No, it's not plagiarism, it's using a WP:RS. Most of this material could go back in, with suitable reference to the source and/or quotes. There is currently still too little in the article in terms of research, explanation, analysis and possible treatments. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:07, 26 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plagiarism? 

message: I believe Cindy Lou Romberg was featured in a brief story on CNN recently.  Another problem she had was what she called something like "speaking in a language no one can identify".  She basically was attempting to speak English and believed the sounds she was making were separate words, but it was coming out as strings of nonsense syllables.  I think she said this was involuntary, but I'm not sure.  I don't know what this would be called medically or how to describe it in the article itself. Atherva (talk) 07:08, 17 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It is likely that she suffered Aphasia-like symptoms along with her FAS, possibly a production Aphasia like Broca's Aphasia.24.20.119.111 (talk) 21:41, 10 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Another aspect of the disorder

message: Since the condition shows up after a physical trauma, often a head injury, probably with a period of unconsciousness, an explanation would - if you can fit it in your belief system ... - be that such a person is a "walk in". What is that? See http://www.christian-reincarnation.com/WalkInE.htm for an explanation. Or how else would you explain that the person can in certain cases even speak words or sentences in a language he or she hasn’t learned (xenoglossy)? Any other "natural" explanation will be a lot more far fetched than this one! But you would have to admit that the human being has a soul that survives the death of the body. Signed: Jan Erik Sigdell (see the stated website) Nov. 19, 2008, UTC 13:55
: There are two big problems as I see it here. One, the accent is not another accent, but to a listener resembles a foreign accent. For example, someone with FAS may sound British or Bostonian if there is no final r, and the listener assumes such. If you know or have a British/Boston accent, then you hear something else, such as a French accent. 
: Second is that anybody can speak words from another language. Xenoglossy can be attributed to speech perception as well. If I were to blurt out a string of syllables and sounds, invariably someone will hear words from some language. Sim-speak exemplifies this. It's all nonsense, but if you listen, you can hear words that aren't English. I am always hearing "Ohana" which is Hawaiian for family or Japanese for Flower because I know the word. Likewise, I also always hear "Tularu" which sounds vaguely Hawaiian as well. If I didn't know any Hawaiian, I wouldn't hear these as words. 24.20.119.111 (talk) 21:50, 10 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  A logical but controversial explanation

message: After a stroke, her normal Geordie accent was transformed and has been variously described as resembling a Jamaican, as well as a French Canadian, Italian and a Slovak accent.
When you click on French Canadian, it brings you to Canada instead of where it properly belongs, Quebec. Good one fellas. (Vive le Quebec Libre!) KiNgFrOmHeLl (talk) 23:06, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It's possible, but unlikely. It's relatively easy to figure out people who are faking sometimes, just by the way they act. People who actually have speech disorders are consistent in their problems, and are usually frustrated by their inability to speak normally. Besides, you are comparing metaphysical with the physical. It's like comparing an Orange to an Elephant. The two are in no way equal.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.20.119.111 (talk) 21:55, 10 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Haha very funny

message: I met the nicest lady in her late 50s to mid 60s who has this condition.  She was bit by a spider.  The venom reached her brain and the only side effect is her distorted accent. Sounds German or Slovikian.  I would have not believed it accept she had to get her husband to explain what happened and the condition she has.  She's not been on any talk shows she just does organic gardening at home.  If there's money to be made she's missing out.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.46.196.38 (talk) 19:35, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  people encountered. 

message: No mention of treatment in the article.  www.ehow.com * states: 
"Individuals with Foreign Accent Syndrome usually respond well to treatment."
—DIV (138.194.12.32 (talk) 03:38, 4 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Treatment 

message: I am a sufferer of FAS and would like to clarify a few points that people generally misinterpret when discussing or talking about this condition. FAS is a speech disorder in which others interpret the speech as a foreign accent when actually it is a dysfunction with the prosody, the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. The name of the condition is really a misnomer because people who suffer from this do not actually acquire a foreign accent. People with FAS do not wake up one day with the lingo and other generalized phrases of another region nor do they suddenly start writing in the variation of a particular language (i.e. American English vs. British English spellings). We may however miss words/letters, repeat words, add letters to words (such as ending words in a 's' sound when there isn't normally one there), have trouble finding the appropriate word that we are trying to use and the like.  There are also many causes including differing forms of brain trauma. A few people, like me, have developed the 'accent' after severe, prolonged bouts of Sporadic Hemiplegic Migraines (see:Familial hemiplegic migraine). 
The most important thing for people to remember is that this is not a true accent but a disorder in the way the words are formed, syllables are pronounced etc. so that the speech itself really cannot necessary be identified as an actual known accent. By this I mean that there may be times that a person with FAS 'sounds' British to the untrained ear but may actually pronounce various syllables in a manner that may match a combination of sounds associated with British, Australian and Irish accents. The quality of the speech may also change for many of us dependent on our fatigue levels, how we are trying to stress words, volume and other factors. It is a complicated and very frustrating condition to have not only because so few people are aware that it exists but also because of the loss of a very real part of our personalty. 
Many people have implied that people with this condition are 'faking it' for the publicity or some other crazy reason. Please understand that this is not a condition you would want to have. The first year after my speech 'changed' I spent my time going to speech therapy and trying to get my own family to understand what I was saying. Many times during that period I would have to actually write out what I wanted to say or send emails across the room because my speech was so slurred and difficult to understand. Even two and a half years later I still have to repeat myself frequently, even with close friends and family, and have even had occasions where I have had to have a family member that is around me often explain to others what I am saying.  Due to fears of foreigners that some Americans have, I have even been verbally accosted in public because people automatically think that I am foreign. I did not ask for this to happen and have enough struggles in my life without being further abused by people who choose to side on ignorance rather than education. But because of the trials I have had I am currently working on efforts to inform both the general public and medical community that this and other rare disorders do exist in the hope that others may receive better diagnosis and treatment for their conditions and not have to suffer the challenges that I have had to face. Juliekfrazier (talk) 06:14, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for sharing your information and your experiences.  I found it both helpful and informative.  Hope things are going well for you.  Thanks again!   (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:49, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

text: Thanks for telling your story. I'm just a person who is curious about this extremely rare disorder. I notice that it has been almost 5 years since your posted this. Hope things have been getting better for you. Take care.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Benjasmine (talk • contribs) 07:15, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Patient with Foreign Accent Syndrome 

message: I think that this article so far seems very misleading. I particularly dislike that specific accents are assigned to the sufferers of the syndrome in the list format at the end. Given that no one is really picking up another foreign accent (just having some changes in their accessible phonemes, prosody, etc, as Juliekfrazier mentioned above), it seems non-encyclopedic to give a list of what accent it "sounds like" they have, which is hugely subjective. I imagine people will be curious, but it might be worth while to either try to re-emphasize that these are not real accents or at least reword the sentences that make it seem like they are accents. Example:
::Another incident involving migraine was recorded in September 2010, again with a British woman. After lying down for a while because of her migraine, 49-year-old Kay Russell, from Gloucestershire UK, woke up with a French accent.[22][23][24]
Could be re-worded as:
:: In September 2010, Kay Russell, a 49-year-old woman from Gloucestershire UK, lay down due to a migraine and woke up with/suffering from FAS. Her accent is generally described as sounding French, though it has also been categorized it as sounding Eastern European or Russian.[22][23][24]
(New details taken from the sources). Doing so may be a bit wordier, but it is certainly more accurate, and less likely to give a faulty impression to the reader of what FAS is actually like. 0x0077BE (talk) 00:28, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I quite agree. Re-reporting the cases in this way is indeed self-contradictory for this article. But, in some cases we will be stuck with the way it was originally reported. The example you give would be ideal. Unfortunately, however, these stories are a great topic for tabloids, where such niceties are not needed. Martinevans123 (talk) 08:48, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Misleading article - suggested changes

message: This article is increasingly just becoming a list of people who have claimed in the popular media to have foreign accent syndrome. Most of the synopses are decidedly misleading or parroted from popular articles in direct contradiction to the more scientific parts of the article. I recommend that the list part of this article be purged. If someone wants to turn it into a little paragraph about how FAS is often reported in the media that seems like it could be done OK.0x0077BE (talk) 18:46, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I know what you mean, but notability of cases is largely based on press reports and many of such reports are to be found in the popular press. I think the relevance of the list may be in its brevity, illustrating the rarity of this alleged condition. I have no problem with replacing tabloid sources with broadsheet ones, or with scientific journal material, if it exists. But, equally, I see no need for any "purge" until more scientifically-based material has been be added to the article. What do other editors think? Martinevans123 (talk) 20:18, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the list of incidents should be culled. An encyclopedic article should describe the disease, and perhaps a couple of notable cases. The fact that this is periodically covered in the news does not mean we should list every occasion CNN decides to air a story about this unusual condition.    JoelWhy?(talk) 13:05, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I would have thought that CNN was a perfectly reliable source, especially compared to some of those which currently appear. I'd prefer to find better sources, if possible, before any "cull" is made. But how do we decide what is an "optimum" list size? If this condition is as rare as has been claimed, surely each reported case deserves to be noted, if not examined in some detail? Martinevans123 (talk) 18:47, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: CNN is a reliable source. I only meant that this condition is unusual and not particularly life threatening, so it makes a good human-interest story. Therefore, you'll see a good number of these cases covered by CNN, MSNBC, etc, but that doesn't mean they're particularly important. There appears to be about 1 case reported per year (i.e. 62 reported cases over the past 60 years), meaning it's rare, but there's absolutely no need to have 61 separate accounts for each individual. Drawing the line is always going to be an arbitrary matter, but I think narrowing this down to 2 or 3 examples in a single section makes sense.    JoelWhy?(talk) 20:17, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh well, fair enough. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:25, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with @JoelWhy, though I'd probably prefer that the list be removed entirely and replaced with a paragraph, like, "Foreign accent syndrome has about x cases per year and often garners press attention. Many cases, such as those of John Doe[cite1], Jane Doe[cite2] and John Q Public[cite3] have been the result of strokes, while others[cite4][cite5][cite6] have been the result of a physical trauma." People can read the individual stories at the sources.  If people think that the whole list is justifiably encyclopedic, I think it would be preferable to split the list into a second article, List of people reported to have Foreign Accent Syndrome or something of that nature. 0x0077BE (talk) 18:13, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: We'd need WP:RS even for such descriptive statements as ".. about x cases per year and often garners press attention." A list of reported cases has the benefit of being simply that (although ideally it should be based on a list published itself in a peer-reviewed journal paper, etc.) I'm not sure there are enough cases here to justify a whole new article. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:28, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  I don't see how it's better to imply a number of cases if we can't state it - that just seems like it's skirting the rules about sourcing statements. In any case, I think the wikipedia's editorial preference is, in general, to opt for prose over lists, and this article is wholly redundant. This article is mostly about FAS, not about the people who have it. Honestly, I think that if anything the limited nature of the list weighs in favor of a separate article, as it can be extensive. 0x0077BE (talk) 18:39, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Sorry to see that you think "this article is wholly redundant." Martinevans123 (talk) 18:56, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Sorry, I actually don't know what I meant by that and I don't remember writing it. Must have been distracted for a second and let my hands wander on the keyboard. I think what I might have meant is that most of the items in the list are wholly redundant as they are all variations on a theme. Person A has a stroke, wakes up sounding weird, people say that instead of their <nationality/region> accent, they now have a <different nationality/region> accent. Person B fell down and messed up their jaw, now they speak like they are <different nationality than they are>. I've been critical in general of the somewhat loose terms in which these events are described in general and I think that the fact that these case studies are now taking up a significant fraction of the article means that we need to either decide that such a list is worth including in Wikipedia - in which case it should have a separate list article - or such a list is NOT worth including, in which case it should be removed and replaced with a summary of its contents. This is the natural evolution of articles as they improve.0x0077BE (talk) 19:36, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Well, those are your own two preferred alternatives. Thanks for clarifying your position. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:43, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  I don't think it should be included here, and I don't think it should be turned into its own article. If there were 5 people in the history of modern medicine, maybe the list (even as its own article) makes sense. But, we've got dozens of cases. Again, extremely rare, but I just don't see how that warrants an encyclopedia article. I know there are tons of articles on Wikipedia that are equally undeserving (e.g. Pen Clicking) but no need to further clutter up the internet with trivia, IMHO. JoelWhy?(talk) 19:48, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Strange, my Pen Clicking link isn't working, but there's an article (unfortunately) on this topic. What'd I do wrong?    JoelWhy?(talk) 19:49, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Wikipedia articles are case sensitive by default. I added a redirect from Pen Clicking to Pen clicking so now your original link works. 0x0077BE (talk) 19:57, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

text:  How many dozens is that, exactly? And why do you consider this article to be "trivia"?  Did someone mention a vote? Martinevans123 (talk) 19:52, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  I'm fine with a vote. Presumably the RfC should go out to WikiProject:Medicine and Wikipedia:WikiProject_Neuroscience. 0x0077BE (talk) 19:57, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  A very good idea. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:01, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  If this is an RfC we may want to narrow it to the minimum number of agreeable options. I think that overall the options we're considering are: leave it alone, prune it down, remove it entirely, summarize it or move it to its own article. Should we ask a more general "What should happen to it"? or should we just decide on 2-3 options and try and achieve consensus on those? I think "summarize" and "remove entirely" can be merged into one option. Do we have an existing consensus that something must be done, leaving us with the options of, "Prune down, restate in paragraph form or split to new article"? 0x0077BE (talk) 20:12, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

text: (And I'm saying it depends on how many there are.) And my preferred option - "improve sources of existing list and/or replace with a list from an academic paper". Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:07, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  We know how many there are. 62 since 1941.    JoelWhy?(talk) 20:39, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Yes, Mariën et al told us in 2009, apparently. But we don't know who they all were? Nor that the 14 included here are in any way considered (medically) to be the most notable (and at least 5 of these 14 seem to have occurred after that paper was written). Do you think 62 is too many for a list in a separate article (even if all their names were known)? Looks like a subscription to Cortex might come in useful... Martinevans123 (talk) 20:49, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not that I necessarily think 62 is too many for a list, it's that I think the individual names of each person is a trivial matter in the context of an encyclopedia. The disease is notable. Each individual who has contracted from the disease is not.    JoelWhy?(talk) 13:02, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article is becoming a list 

message: * Remove list and summarize. As per my arguments in the previous section, I am in favor of removing the list entirely and incorporating any relevant material from the lists in the main body of the article in paragraph form. 0x0077BE (talk) 20:28, 17 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Survey 

message: One if the references:  http://www.healthmango.com/healthgeneral/foreign-accent-syndrome-what-is-it-and-most-notable-cases/
is reported to be a dangerous site by Mozilla Firefox. 89.138.15.255 (talk) 13:47, 21 September 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Have removed it, thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:05, 21 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  One of the references is possibly a phishing site 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Foreign accent syndrome. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added  tag to http://cjns.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue%2C17%2C23%3Bjournal%2C24%2C81%3Blinkingpublicationresults%2C1%3A300307%2C1
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071111224834/http://www.cohpa.ucf.edu/news/story_comdisclinic.cfm to http://www.cohpa.ucf.edu/news/story_comdisclinic.cfm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110611020142/http://www.wmtw.com/r/27798974/detail.html to http://www.wmtw.com/r/27798974/detail.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100425000406/http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/migraine-left-woman-with-chinese-accent/story-e6frg12u-1225855831038 to http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/migraine-left-woman-with-chinese-accent/story-e6frg12u-1225855831038
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 18:33, 3 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: '60 Minutes Australia' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLxhSu3UuU4) features the topic. Kdammers (talk) 03:27, 30 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  60 Minutes Australia 

message: If anyone ever needs information from an actual sufferer of the disorder or how it effects general life and well being, or the social ramifications of having a non-standard dialect, feel free to ask me. Lifelong sufferer. Live in TN but instead of a Mid-Land Southern(Country) accent.
 I have a non-rhotic variety of a Southern accent with a few minor AAVE features, such as th-stopping. Strangest feature is I have the extinct coil-curl merger. This collides with how 
my realization of /aɪəɹ/ as [äːɻ], so that 'fire' has merged with the sound of 'far', as well as 'tire' with 'tar';  I cannot pronouce "first" or "nurse" it morphs to "farrst" and "narse" SouthernGentleman00 (talk) 05:44, 25 June 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  I have the disease