LINGUIST List 8.1501

Sat Oct 18 1997

Disc: Foreign Accent Syndrome

Editor for this issue: James German <jameslinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Michael M T Henderson, Foreign Accent Syndrome

Are there any cases of FAS which have been attested by native speakers
of the "new" accent? And are there any in which the native language of
the subject is something other than English? The Scots lady who woke
up sounding South African would have had to develop special vowels:
/e/ would have had to raise and front, /o/ would have had to
diphthongize, the first element of /ai/ would have had to be
retracted, and of course all trilled or approximant variants of /r/
would have had to turn into taps ... quite a feat.

Or was it maybe a Xhosa accent she developed? That might be easier.

Michael M. T. Henderson
Linguistics Department
University of Kansas
Lawrence KS 66045-2140
mmthukans.edu