Una mujer americana, de Indiana para más señas, sufre una apoplejía. Cuando se recupera, resulta que habla con acento británico. Es más, su acento es mezcla de cockney y West Country. Aparentemente, no es tan raro como parece: se llama síndrome del acento extranjero:
Last year, they confirmed that patients can develop a foreign accent without ever having been exposed to the accent.
This is because they haven’t really picked up the accent. Their speech patterns have changed. Injury to their brain causes them to lengthen syllables, alter their pitch or mispronounce sounds. These changes make it sound like they have picked up an accent. They may lengthen syllables.
The first case of foreign accent syndrome was reported in 1941 in Norway, after a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injury to the brain during an air raid.
Initially, she had severe language problems from which she eventually recovered. However, she was left with what sounded like a strong German accent and was ostracized by her community.
(vía the null device)