Scientists Puzzled by People Who Begin Speaking in Foreign Accents

April 6, 2006 — -- Seeing Susan Bowen at home in Alpena, Mich., or at one of many meetings she attends as a community planner gives little indication that anything is unusual about her. When she begins to speak, her strange secret is revealed.

"I go grocery shopping and the clerk will say, 'You're not from around here, are you?'" Bowen said. "Well, yes, as a matter of fact I am."

About four years ago, Bowen began speaking with a strange foreign-sounding accent, and she says she has absolutely no idea why.

"Many doctors have told me, 'There's nothing wrong with you,' but I know there is because this is not normal," she said.

She says the change began one hot night in July.

"I woke up and I had trouble walking," she said. "I had to hang on to the walls to get through my house and my speech was not like this but was a stutter, and I could not say more than a word or two at a time."

At first doctors thought she had a stroke or maybe multiple sclerosis, but tests were inconclusive and the symptoms kept getting stranger. After four or five days of stuttering, Bowen said she began speaking with a sort of European accent.

"I have a friend who calls me the Swiss chick," she said.

Friends joked that maybe she was reverting back to a past life. But doctors said there was nothing physically wrong with her, and perhaps the problem was psychological. Bowen insists she wasn't faking the accent.

For Bowen's son, Jacob, having a mother with a strange new voice has been confusing ... and frightening.

"Just knowing that she can be doing something one day and lose it the next," he said.

Bowen said this strange problem has changed her whole outlook on life.

"I want to do things while I can while I'm able and with my family," she said. "So we've been traveling and taking trips and doing things like that, and I think that's far more important now to do it while we are able ... you never know what you wake up to tomorrow."