Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a speech change characterized by an abrupt transformation in an individual’s speech pattern, resulting in the perception of them speaking with a distinctly “foreign” accent. People normally learn to speak a language by having experiences in speaking the language from childhood that are then accessible from Our Universal Intelligence. Words and syntax are then retrieved by the subconscious and flow normally.
Retrieving these experiences is the same phenomenon as retrieving a memory from Our Universal Intelligence, such as a sight, sound, or other memory. Memories are not stored in the brain. They are coming from Our Universal Intelligence. The fact that language comes from this source outside of us, not the brain, is demonstrated in Foreign Accent Syndrome. A person suddenly is accessing a different set of experiences, those of someone who speaks with an accent. That could not happen if the experiences resulting in language production are stored in the brain.
Despite the alterations in speech brought about by Foreign Accent Syndrome, speech intelligibility remains generally high, and the communication does not sound disordered.
Foreign Accent Syndrome has been observed in diverse cases worldwide, resulting in changes from one accent to another, including transitions from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian.
These are some common speech alterations associated with FAS:
- Fairly predictable errors
- Deviations in Prosody: This may manifest as irregular stress patterns, notably with excessive stress, particularly in words with multiple syllables.
- Consonant Modifications: FAS can lead to the substitution, deletion, or distortion of consonants within words.
- Voicing Anomalies: Such as replacing “b” with “p” resulting in “bike” being pronounced as “pike.”
- Challenges with Consonant Clusters: Difficulty in articulating sequences of consonants.
- Vowel Alterations: These may involve distortion, elongation, or substitutions, such as changing “yeah” to “yah.”
- Introduction of “uh”: The addition of the sound “uh” into words, affecting their pronunciation.
