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tvieno t1_j66w9ky wrote

I don't think it is a foreign accent they are developing but they are speaking differently that the way they used to, it just so happens to sound like a foreign accent.

For example if I started pronouncing my R's differently, you could say I would sound like i am British or Bostonian, but no, i am just pronouncing my R's differently.

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Business-Emu-6923 t1_j67366n wrote

No it is genuinely a foreign accent, like if you were doing a funny voice as a kind of racist impersonation or something.

Don’t laugh - it can be genuinely traumatic for people with this who can only talk in a fake voice.

The brain processes language differently if you are doing a funny voice as an impersonation. Sometimes brain injury, like aphasia after a stroke, can stop the usual speech pathways from functioning. The brain finds a work-around by sending your speech via the “funny foreign voice” processing centres. Weird, rare, but it happens.

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iluomo t1_j6729o8 wrote

Yeah, a lot of foreign accents exist because the people that learned foreign languages never formed the ability to produce certain vocal sounds because they are not relevant to their native tongue. Therefore, if you happen to lose the ability to produce a particular sound that is relevant to your own language, you'll sound foreign.

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Flat-Hippo6122 t1_j67sjyk wrote

Indeed. Mostly likely the signals to the mouth muscles have been damaged, reducing the range of movement in certain areas. People could lose the ability to form the θ (th) sound in "think" and instead pronounce it like "sink". This would add an almost German tint to their accent.

It's not like one day they are speaking with a British English accent and the next they suddenly have a legit German accent.

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Bucksandreds t1_j683oxc wrote

From the info that’s available, that’s not correct.

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Flat-Hippo6122 t1_j68rkbb wrote

Please elaborate.
Where do I contradict the "info" available?

I didn't have time to read the link posted, but have heard of the syndrome before.

Having finally read the link posted, it falls in line with the example I gave. It also states that people's accents randomly changed after experiencing some form of trauma to the brain (including the area responsible for speech) or nervous system (which the brain uses to transmit and receive data to and from the body).

Surely these imply that the syndrome is something affecting signals to the mouth, causing restrictions in movement and therefore sound production.

Their accent wouldn't be a true German accent either. It would just have hints of a German accent because not all the vocal sounds have changed.

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Bucksandreds t1_j68ws2o wrote

I guess we’re having a misunderstanding of what each other is saying. I was implying that it wasn’t so simple as one sound being different but a complete or near complete change in pronunciations across a spectrum of sounds. Changing the way one pronounces a single sound, would not be sufficient to make a listener believe that they’re hearing a foreign accent.

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Flat-Hippo6122 t1_j6992j6 wrote

Ah right.

I was just using a single sound as an example because I was feeling too lazy to get a collection of phonetic characters, a fault on my part.

Seeing as a lot of sounds use the same muscle groups, it stands to reason that multiple sounds will be affected from signal damage to the brain or nervous system rather than just one. It still wouldn't create a genuine German accent though, only hints of one. (I'm using German as an example purely because I recently watched a video on how to talk like Einstein)

I agree that a single sound change wouldn't sound foreign, but would sound unique, i.e., Sean Connery's accent.

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