Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare brain disorder, causes those affected by it to speak with an accent that they do not naturally have. This disorder most frequently occurs after a stroke or major brain injury, as explained by Vibe. While the Foreign Accent Syndrome is rather uncommon, cases of FAS have been reported for nearly 100 years.

The Atlantic said that one of the earliest well detailed cases of FAS occurred in Norway during the second World War. A Norwegian woman named Astrid was hit in the head with shrapnel during a German air raid, resulting in a fairly major brain injury. After her brain injury she spoke with a distinctly German accent, despite never having left her home country of Norway.

Her condition was rather problematic to her, as she was treated badly because Norwegians believed she was German. At the time of her accent Germany had been occupying the country for several years. Norwegian citizens went as far as to not sell her anything in shops, which made her life rather hard. A more recent case of Foreign Accent Syndrome has risen in the past few years.

AZCentral, an Arizona news source, reported that a woman has been speaking with a British accent for roughly three years. Michelle Myers, the affected Arizona resident, went to sleep one night with a migraine and awoke with a British accent. Similar to Astrid, Myers has never left her home country. Myers has been affected with other accents in the past, including an uncanny Irish accent that only lasted about a week, and, according to AZCentral, an Australian accent that only lasted for a single day, but none of them have lasted as long as the British accent has.

The condition was most likely caused by another disorder Myers has: Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The way Foreign Accent Syndrome causes what sounds like accents has been explored by the medical community.

The Atlantic reported that the stroke or other brain injury causes the affected person to stress or drop some syllables in a pattern resembling the accent of a foreign nation. Myers has made the best of her condition however, and has gone on to create a group called  “The Cross of Chronic Pain and the Mail of Invisible Illness”.