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Dysprosody and the Foreign Accent Syndrome

Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC

Purpose: The sudden emergence of a foreign accent in an individual's native language has been described in the literature for over 60 years. In one of the most famous cases, the terms prosody and dysprosody first were introduced to the literature. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the prosodic changes seen in the foreign accent syndrome (FAS) and to review its etiology and clinical course.

Method: Case studies were reviewed, with an emphasis on information about clinical presentation and course and on speech changes affecting stress, rate, duration, and intonation.

Results and Conclusions: In the majority of published cases with FAS, there has been documented focal brain injury in the left cerebral hemisphere, and the foreign accent has emerged after a period of recovery from muteness, nonfluent aphasia, and/or motor speech disorder. In other cases, a psychogenic etiology has been established or suggested. Stress, rate, and duration changes are similar to those seen in nonfluent aphasia and apraxia of speech, whereas intonation changes are more specific to the foreign accent presentation. Information about recovery and psychosocial consequences of the accented speech is sparse and these areas are in need of further study. In particular, there is a need for detailed and clinically oriented case studies with longitudinal follow-up.