Abstract
PurposeThe main aim of this experiment was to investigate the perception of Foreign Accent Syndrome in comparison to speakers with an authentic foreign accent. MethodThree groups of listeners attributed accents to conversational speech samples of 5 FAS speakers which were embedded amongst those of 5 speakers with a real foreign accent and 5 native speaker controls. The listening panels differed in their familiarity with foreign accented speech and speech pathology. ResultsThe findings indicate that listeners’ perceptual responses to the three groups of speakers were essentially different at all levels of analysis. The native speaker controls were unequivocally recognized as native speakers of Dutch while the speakers with a real foreign accent were very reliably assessed as non-native speakers. The speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome, however, were in some sense perceived as foreign and in some sense as native by listeners, but not as foreign as speakers with a real foreign accent nor as native as real native speakers. These results are accounted for in terms of a misinterpretation of markers of speech pathology as markers regional affiliation. ConclusionsThe findings of the experiment are consistent with the idea that the very nature of the foreign accent is different in both groups of speakers, although it cannot be fully excluded that the foreign impression in the two groups is one of degree.Learning outcomes: Readers are able to: (1) define Foreign Accent Syndrome as a motor speech disorder and identify the different subtypes of FAS, (2) describe the most important differences in listeners’ perceptual reactions to FAS and real foreign accents, and (3) discuss the findings of the present study in relation to other studies investigating accent attribution in FAS.
Highlights
Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a motor speech disorder in which patients develop a speech accent which is notably different from their premorbid accent
The fact that FAS speech in this experiment is more strongly associated with the more familiar accents is quite different from the results in Di Dio et al (2006) who did find an influence of accent familiarity, but only in the speakers with a real foreign accent, not in the FAS speakers
As a result of this trigger-support model a pattern of foreignness may be invoked in listeners which is more apparent than real and which is essentially based on a misinterpretation of speech pathology features
Summary
Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a motor speech disorder in which patients develop a speech accent which is notably different from their premorbid accent. The speaker from Paris had developed ‘a noticeable Alsatian accent which he did not have before’ (Marie 1907: 159 ; own translation) Since this statement about 50 cases have appeared in the literature (Dankovicova & Hunt, 2011) which have been classified by Verhoeven & Mariën (2010) into three distinct taxonomical types: neurogenic, psychogenic and mixed. The third FAS variant is mixed: initially the accent develops as a result of neurological damage This accent change causes a strong feeling of loss of identity in the patient and the psychological effect of this is such that the patient seems to make a deliberate attempt to ‘improve’ the authenticity of the accent in order to create a more acceptable new identity (Laures-Gore, Contado Henson, Weismer, & Rambow, 2006)
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