The Phenomenon of the Foreign Accent Syndrome

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Augsburg, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to introduce the reader to the Phenomenon of the Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) and to work out the similarities and differences between the syndrome and a real foreign accent. For this, various case studies will be introduced and their results will be drawn together in order to list up the main facts and characteristics of the foreign accent syndrome. Following, a reflection about the probable causes of the syndrome will be done. There has not been a lot of research about the foreign accent syndrome and only little is known about the real pathologic cause of FAS. The FAS is to separate from other disorders such as apraxia (and aphasia), despite the fact that they share a lot of common features and the FAS is considered to be a subtype of the AoS. Although there is no detailed knowledge about the cause of foreign accent syndrome, the theories about its pathologic reasons will be discussed as well. Although there are several known kinds of the foreign accent syndrome, this paper will focus on the ones following a stroke or other lesions affecting the human brain. On the following pages the characteristics of a real foreign accent will be compared to the ones of the foreign accent syndrome with the aim to find out which factors lead to the perception of the individuals´ speech as foreign and to reveal the actual differences. In final the results will be discussed.