Foreign accent syndrome in Iran: case report

ABSTRACT

Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare speech disorder caused by the damage sustained to left hemisphere of the brain, in which a combination of segmental and suprasegmental deviations in speech production creates foreign accent. Despite of segmental pronunciation problems, prosodic errors are mainly considered as the main characteristics of Foreign Accent Syndrome. The present paper offers a report on a 53-year Persian-speaking woman who is pronouncing the words and sentences with foreign accent after a stroke and central semiovale focal infarctions of left hemisphere. According to researchers' information and follow-up done, this patient is considered as the first case of FAS in Iran. Prosodic characteristics of the patient's speech have been compared with speech features of ordinary speakers of Persian language. Being in direction of previously reported research findings, the obtained results show that there are main deviations in prosodic characteristics of the patient's speech which are related to the speech rate, stress, and juncture