Two cases of foreign accent syndrome: an acoustic-phonetic description

This paper presents an acoustic-phonetic description of two American English speakers with foreign accent syndrome (FAS). Speech samples were collected from both speakers. Acoustic measurements of voice onset time, vowel duration, first and second formant frequency analysis, fundamental frequency (F0), and consonantal duration were performed. Both speakers demonstrated timing errors and a hypothesized difference in vocal tract constriction. However, variability in acoustic-phonetic patterns between the two FAS speakers was noted in F0, F0 contours, manner of articulation, and linguistic modifications. These cases extend knowledge about the acoustic-phonetic patterns associated with FAS in an attempt to further describe the phenomenon.