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05-02-2011, 11:32 PM
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Woman Gets New Accent After Dentist Visit
Patient Awoke With Rare Foreign Accent Syndrome
Posted: Friday, May 6, 2011
Updated: 8:00 am CDT May 6, 2011
Toledo, Ore. -- When most people leave the dentist's office, they're leaving with chapped, stretched lips and a bit of Novocain numbness. But one Oregon woman left her dentist's with an entirely new accent. Karen Butler, of Toledo, Ore., said she went to the dentist for routine work and woke up speaking completely different than she had. "I sounded more like I was from Transylvania," said Butler.
Butler said her new accent immediately started getting attention. "You talk to young girls they think it's a very, very pretty sound. And they say, 'I want an accent like that,'" said Butler. "Oh, well just go see my dentist. He only charges $7,000." Butler is one of a very small number of people suffering from what is known as foreign accent syndrome. There have been just 60 recorded cases since 1941.
There isn't anything Butler can do to get her old accent back -- she doesn't notice the change at all. The only way she can hear the mix of Irish brogue and Eastern European thickness is by listening to a recording. Apart from a few surprised people at the end of a telephone call, Butler said her life is mostly the same. Her husband agrees. "She still is her old American self. Just her voice has changed," said Glen Butler.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. CNN contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
Woman Gets New Accent After Dentist Visit
Patient Awoke With Rare Foreign Accent Syndrome
Posted: Friday, May 6, 2011
Updated: 8:00 am CDT May 6, 2011
Toledo, Ore. -- When most people leave the dentist's office, they're leaving with chapped, stretched lips and a bit of Novocain numbness. But one Oregon woman left her dentist's with an entirely new accent. Karen Butler, of Toledo, Ore., said she went to the dentist for routine work and woke up speaking completely different than she had. "I sounded more like I was from Transylvania," said Butler.
Butler said her new accent immediately started getting attention. "You talk to young girls they think it's a very, very pretty sound. And they say, 'I want an accent like that,'" said Butler. "Oh, well just go see my dentist. He only charges $7,000." Butler is one of a very small number of people suffering from what is known as foreign accent syndrome. There have been just 60 recorded cases since 1941.
There isn't anything Butler can do to get her old accent back -- she doesn't notice the change at all. The only way she can hear the mix of Irish brogue and Eastern European thickness is by listening to a recording. Apart from a few surprised people at the end of a telephone call, Butler said her life is mostly the same. Her husband agrees. "She still is her old American self. Just her voice has changed," said Glen Butler.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. CNN contributed to this report. All rights reserved.