New Zealand brain injury woman 'sounds Welsh'RSS Feed

A brain injury patient from New Zealand has been speaking with a Welsh accent for the last two years after awaking one morning to find her Kiwi twang had gone.

Bronwyn Fox of Invercargill developed the accent overnight two years ago, after her multiple sclerosis (MS) caused two lesions on her brain.

The inexplicable change is known as foreign accent syndrome and is rare and little understood condition that affects a handful of brain injury sufferers.

She has had no connection to Wales in her life and has no British-born relatives.

"I am a third-generation New Zealander and my mother and father didn't have a British accent. Nor does anyone I know," she said.

As well as the accent change Mrs Fox, who has suffered from MS for the last 25 years, suffered deterioration in her eyesight and remains partially sighted.

Foreign accent syndrome was first noted in 1907 and there have been only around 60 known cases of the condition since.

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Posted by John Sherrington

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