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The Stressful Scone

Why do we have regional accents? Science sleuths Drs Rutherford and Fry investigate. From November 2018.

"How do accents start and where did they come from?鈥 asks Sachin Bahal from Toronto in Canada.

Hannah is schooled in speaking Geordie by top accent coach Marina Tyndall. And Adam talks to author and acoustics expert Trevor Cox about how accents evolved and why they persist.

We meet Debie who has Foreign Accent Syndrome - an extremely rare condition in which your accent can change overnight. After a severe bout of flu, which got progressively worse, Debie's Brummie accent suddenly transformed into something distinctively more European.

If you have any more Curious Cases for the team to solve, please send them in for consideration: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry

Producer: Michelle Martin

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in November 2018.

Available now

33 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Wed 28 Nov 2018 09:30
  • Wed 28 Nov 2018 20:45
  • Sun 28 Nov 2021 10:45
  • Sun 28 Nov 2021 21:45
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