[Source: ABC News – November, 2008]
CindyLou Romberg sounds like she could be from any number of exotic countries around the world. She sometimes rolls her “R”s like a Russian, chops syllables like a German or turns an unsuspecting “W” into a “V,” like a Swede.
Romberg suffers from what doctors call Foreign Accent Syndrome, or FAS, an extremely rare brain disorder that, as the name implies, causes its sufferers to speak as if they are from a foreign country.
“We’ll be in the grocery store and someone will come up and say, ‘Oh, you have a beautiful accent. Where are you from?'” Romberg told “Good Morning America.”
The syndrome is likely related to an accident in 1981 when CindyLou suffered a depressed skull fracture after falling out of a moving truck, scientists say. She recovered from a severe brain injury, and spoke normally until just two years ago when she lost her voice for a couple of days after a visit with a chiropractor.
Watch a Fascinating Story on ABC about Foreign Accent Syndrome