title: Accent attribution in speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main aim of this experiment was to investigate the perception of Foreign Accent Syndrome in comparison to speakers with an authentic foreign accent.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three groups of listeners attributed accents to conversational speech samples of 5 FAS speakers which were embedded amongst those of 5 speakers with a real foreign accent and 5 native speaker controls. The listening panels differed in their familiarity with foreign accented speech and speech pathology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings indicate that listeners' perceptual responses to the three groups of speakers were essentially different at all levels of analysis. The native speaker controls were unequivocally recognized as native speakers of Dutch while the speakers with a real foreign accent were very reliably assessed as non-native speakers. The speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome, however, were in some sense perceived as foreign and in some sense as native by listeners, but not as foreign as speakers with a real foreign accent nor as native as real native speakers. These results are accounted for in terms of a misinterpretation of markers of speech pathology as markers regional affiliation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of the experiment are consistent with the idea that the very nature of the foreign accent is different in both groups of speakers, although it cannot be fully excluded that the foreign impression in the two groups is one of degree.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Readers are able to: (1) define Foreign Accent Syndrome as a motor speech disorder and identify the different subtypes of FAS, (2) describe the most important differences in listeners' perceptual reactions to FAS and real foreign accents, and (3) discuss the findings of the present study in relation to other studies investigating accent attribution in FAS.
authors.affiliation: Flemish Academic Centre (Vlaams Academisch Centrum), Advanced Studies Institute of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts, Brussels, Belgium. jo.verhoeven@city.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verhoeven
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Pauw
authors.forename: Michèle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pettinato
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirson
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Borsel
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mariën
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000150:complications; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications; D003291:Conversion Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013067:Speech Perception; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications; D013577:Syndrome