Alef: The NEXT Conversation

Foreign Accent Syndrome

By Ruvym Gilman

I’m only half-joking when I say that sometimes it feels like I’m acquiring the Russian accent that I never had. I was born in freaking Queens, and while Russian did end up being my first language (I was raised by my great-grandmother), I don’t think I’ve ever actually had any sort of foreign accent. But these days, for whatever reason, I’ve been slipping into a Russian accent whenever I hit certain letter combinations:

1. The “ace” in a word like “place” becomes “ess.” So “place” becomes “pless,” and “space” becomes “spess.”

2. The “tion” in a word like “situation” becomes “shun,” but I end up putting a lot more stress at the end of the word and it comes out ethnic-sounding.

3. The “ease” in a word like “please” becomes “ez.” “Please” becomes “plez.”

4. The “teen” in numbers like “sixteen” becomes “tien.” “Sixteen” becomes “sixtien.”

I’m getting frustrated just thinking about it. I admit that in the last year or two, I’ve used a forced Russian accent just to sound funny because I still find that imitating Borat at certain opportune moments is incredibly entertaining. Perhaps, as punishment, this has contributed to the slip into foreign-accent mode even when I’m not playing it up. Part of me also blames getting older as well as the effects of  some genes I think I inherited from my dad. These genes not only make me sound like him, but also result in me making the same sorts of mistakes when it comes to remembering a word or a name as just slightly off from what it actually is. For instance, my dad always calls Natalie Portman “Natalie Portnoy.” You can see how he’s kind of remembering the right thing, but not exactly.

I’ve been thinking about what’s happening to me, and I’m beginning to see my life as a slow but steady path towards a total Russian accent, sort of like a march towards senility. I have, however, come across another explanation – a condition known as “Foreign Accent Syndrome” which causes people who have experienced certain brain traumas to develop random foreign accents. Check out this clip from ABC News about a woman they interviewed who developed the condition. It’s wild.

I don’t really remember experiencing any sort of particular brain trauma, but considering that I spent most of the last 3 years working at a corporate law firm, perhaps that has something to do with it.

Photo by prodman, licensed under Creative Commons.

Tags: Old Country

Posted by Ruvym, Thursday, November 12th, 2009, 3:06 pm, Old Country.

2 Responses to “Foreign Accent Syndrome”

1. Gabriella says:

   November 12, 2009 at 5:40 pm

   haha! this is awesome. last year one of my co-med students i worked with would slip into a strange foreign-ish accent when interviewing patients (but only then!). it was really bizarre to watch him. it was a cross between british and eastern european. i think it may be stress related.
2. Ruvym says:

   November 13, 2009 at 12:40 am

   Well it’s not like we expect soon-to-be-doctors to keep their cool in stressful situations, so that’s totally fine.