Why an Australian Car Crash Victim Can't Stop Speaking in a French Accent

Though an Australian native, Leanne Rowe has spent the last eight years speaking with a French accent - against her will.

"It makes me so angry because I am Australian," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), though she affirms she has nothing against the French.

According to Rowe's family doctor, given that she developed the accent after she broke her back and jaw in a serious car accident, it's likely Rowe is the victim of the extremely rare Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS).

Caused by damage to the part of the brain that controls the melody and rhythm of speech, the University of Southern California's Keck Medical Center explains the syndrome can develop due to a stroke, brain tumor, brain hemorrhaging, multiple sclerosis or, as in the case of Rowe, brain trauma.

However, as to why Rowe ended up with a French-sounding accent is not entirely clear - though she studied the language in school, she's never visited France or had any French-speaking friends.

"It's just an accident of chance that happens to that person that what happens to their speech happens to overlap with the features of a known accent," she told ABC.

Rowe's daughter, Kate Mundy, explains she was so relieved her mother survived the accident that she didn't pay any heed to the change in the way her mother spoke. However, nearly a decade later, Mundy says the syndrome has impacted her mother so much she is forced to do most of the talking for her when they are in public.

"It has affected her life greatly," she said. "People see the funny side of it, and think it's really interesting, I mean, it is interesting, but I've seen the impacts on my mum's life."

Risk factors for FAS include being at high risk for stroke or having aphasia, a disorder that affects one's ability to understand and express language, or speech apraxia, a speech disorder that affects one's ability to make sounds, syllables and words. And while the syndrome can be diagnosed using a number of assessments and scans, there is little besides speech therapy that can be done in order to treat it.

To prevent developing the syndrome, Keck Medical Center suggests exercising regularly, eating well, maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding smoking and alcohol. However, in the end, Rowe's doctor explains that in the past 70 years, only 62 cases of FAS were recorded.