'I woke up with a British accent'

An American woman has told how how she suddenly developed a British accent after suffering a stroke.

When Tiffany Roberts, 57, recovered from the stroke she found she had an accent placed somewhere between East London and the West Country.

Even the pitch of her voice changed, becoming much higher than the deep Indiana drawl she once had.

The dramatic change is even more surprising because she has no links with Britain.

She has never been to Britain or followed British television programmes.

Doctors have diagnosed her with a rare condition called foreign accent syndrome, which is caused when part of the brain is damaged.

Ms Roberts, from Florida, told American television: "People started asking me 'where in England are you from?' and a friend said 'why are you talking that way?'

"That's when I became conscious that a part of me had died."

Ms Roberts has even picked up British slang using the word "bloody". And what was once a "restroom" or "bathroom" has become the "loo".

Ms Roberts has lived with the condition since her stroke in 1999 but has decided to speak out now in search of other people who may be in the same situation.

She said people accused her of lying or trying to be aloof by adopting the accent.

Despite listening to a tape of her previous voice, she has been unable to mimic it.

At one point she even contemplated leaving Sarasota, Florida, to start a new life in Britain where she would blend in more easily, she said.

Dr Jack Ryalls, of the University of Central Florida, who diagnosed Ms Roberts' condition, described the change as a "phenomenon".

It is linked to the damage caused to brain tissue during a stroke, but not fully understood, he said.

Only a handful of cases of foreign accent syndrome have ever been reported.

The first recorded case was in 1941, when a Norwegian woman suffered a shrapnel injury to the head during an air raid.

After overcoming language problems she was left with a strong German accent.

In 1999 a woman from Sevenoaks, Kent, developed a French accent after a minor stroke even though she did not speak French and had only visited the country once for a weekend in Paris.

Wendy Hasnip, 47, previously had a Yorkshire accent.