British mum suffering from foreign accent syndrome. Birmingham-born Debie Royston has never been to France but now speaks with a bizarre Gallic twang after suffering a series of seizures A mum of two told thursday how she emerged from a gruelling bout of the flu – with a French accent.
Birmingham-born Debie Royston has never been to France but now speaks with a bizarre Gallic twang after suffering a series of seizures.
Debie, 40, was unable to speak at all for a month but when her voice returned it had changed.
She said: “I had a bad seizure and when it stopped my mouth wouldn’t work. Over the next month, I had to learn to speak again. But when I did, I heard a different sound, not my Brummie accent. I sounded French but I’ve never even been there. People say to me, ‘Where are you from?’ and when I say ‘Birmingham’ they say, ‘No, you’re French’.”
Debie is one of 60 people worldwide who suffer from foreign accent syndrome.
\"She had to quit her job as a teaching assistant due to the seizures and husband Andy, 41, worked from home for six months to care for her.
Debie, of Gillingham, Kent, said: “I couldn’t see the funny side at first but you learn to laugh.
\"Sometimes it would be easier to say I’m from France but then people might start talking French to me!
“Someone said my accent now sounds sexy and it would be a shame if my Brummie one comes back. That upset me because I liked my old accent.”
Prof Nick Miller, a Newcastle University speech disorders expert who diagnosed Debie a year ago, said the cause of her condition is not clear.
He said: “She appears to have suffered seizures, but other factors may be present. For most, sounding foreign is a temporary phase of days, weeks or months.
\"The number left with a permanent foreign accent is relatively few.”