Every person speaks their own native language and accent, unless they have studied a foreign language or live in another country. What if we told you that a Norwegian suddenly started speaking with a German accent?
A man who lived in Norway all his life, without receiving an education or going to Germany He found himself speaking with a German accent.
Alright how did that happen?
Life in occupied Norway during World War II was difficult for all of the country’s inhabitants.
It was harder for Astrid, 30. For example, when she went shopping, people heard her German accent and refused to pay attention to her. But Astrid was not German. He had lived in Norway all his life.
He had been seriously injured in the head by shrapnel during a previous bomb attack and After this accident he started speaking with a German accent. Astrid’s strange condition came to the attention of Georg Herman Monrad-Krohn, 2 years after her injury.
Georg Herman was at the time a professor of neurology at the University of Oslo and had a special interest in language disorders.
When he looked into this issue further, he realized that Astrid’s situation was not unique to him. A similar situation, It was described in 1907 as a result of a Parisian acquiring an Alsatian accent. In the following centuries, physicians and linguists reported numerous similar cases.
In reality, the situation is, was a speech impediment that changed the patient’s dialect. Vowels were the most affected by this. After all, which vowel you said depended on where your tongue was in your mouth.
At this point, small changes would also affect the resulting sound. This was actually what caused the foreign accent syndrome.
The common element in many cases of this disorder is, It is an injury to certain areas of the left hemisphere of the brain. However, in a small number of cases, it is determined that the syndrome is caused by a psychological disorder rather than physical damage to the brain.
In some of these cases, the foreign accent disappears as the underlying condition is treated. But for some it continues. This discomfort is also behind Norwegian Astrid’s surprising sudden speaking with a German accent.
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