Editorial: Language beyond Words: The Neuroscience of Accent

Abstract

Speakers differ not only in the number of languages they master, but also in the accents they impart. Indeed, accent is an essential component of our identity to the extent that in many cases our social adscription to specific groups and our judgements about others are based on accent. The relevance of accent was often dismissed by many linguists for a large part of the twentieth century. However, today it is widely acknowledged that spoken language does not exist without an accent. There are, however, some circumstances under which speakers are unable to modulate accent properly. In fact, many late learners of a second language are unable to acquire the native-like accent in the new language, and some individuals with discrete brain lesions in the speech production network or neuropsychiatric problems may change or lose their regional accent or acquire a peculiar accent, which gives raise to what we know as foreign accent syndrome (FAS)