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Terri White, 48 years old, told SWNS that after suffering from a very rare migraine, she started speaking in a different accent for each day of the week.
White claimed that the migraines that she would have will alter something in her brain and make her speak in various accents.
White, who is a mother of two children, was born and raised in Hull, East Yorkshire. Although she had never traveled across or beyond the country, White can speak in Jamaican, Irish, and Australian accents.
White said that the whole thing started when she experienced a “silent” migraine while she was on the phone talking to her daughter. She said that her own daughter failed to recognize her because she started speaking in a Scouse accent.
White developed a Foreign Accent Syndrome. After experiencing the various changes almost every day, White eventually picked up colloquialisms and phrases from other countries or areas.
White told SWNS that she cannot control which accent she would have for the day.
White said, “In the beginning I was upset because I thought, ‘How long’s it going to last? What will people think of me?’
“But I’ve learnt to live with it now – it’s part of me. If people have a problem with it then it’s their problem and not mine.
“My sisters take the mickey out of me. Somebody at work asked me if I minded people laughing and I said, ‘No, I laugh because I don’t know what I’m going to say next.’”
She had been living with Foreign Accent Syndrome for ten years. She said that doctors won’t be able to diagnose her properly until she had a stroke three years after she started changing accents.
White said, “The first thing that happened, I was eating something and my jaw just clicked. I thought nothing of it, but the next day I just couldn’t speak properly. I went to hospital and I was given an X-ray on my jaw, but they found nothing wrong.
“So, I went back to work, and then suddenly I started speaking Liverpudlian and I was talking Liverpudlian all afternoon. I rang my youngest daughter Alicia from work because she loves the Liverpool accent.
“But she said, ‘You’re not my mum’, and she put the phone down on me. She didn’t recognize me – I was flabbergasted. I was bemused at the time. I thought, ‘I’ve never been to Liverpool in my life, what’s going on?'”
June Harbord, White’s 74 years old mom, said that her daughter would eventually adapt mannerisms and phrases depending on which accent she would speak in. She said, “When she started speaking Geordie she started singing Fog On The Tyne and when she started speaking with an Irish accent, she’d say ‘Top of the morning t’ya!'”
White could only keep an accent for a few days or weeks. Doctors had told her that the changes could be directly linked to stress or emotion.
When socializing with other people, White said that strangers tend to put on a quizzical look due to the mismatch of the accent and where she really is from.
So far, only 60 people have been diagnosed with this rare syndrome. According to SWNS, the first recorded case of this condition involved a Norwegian woman who was hit by a shrapnel during the World War II.
The incident caused brain damage and made her adapt a German accent, which caused her to be completely rejected by her community in 1941.
