A British woman woke up with a strange foreign accent after she recovered from a stroke on Tuesday. Linda Walker lost her distinctive Newcastle accent while in the hospital and found herself with a mixture of Jamaican, Canadian and Slovakian accents.

Mrs. Walker, a 60-year-old former university administrator, could be a victim of Foreign Accent Syndrome. This is a phenomenon that happens sometimes with patients who suffer a brain injury. They suddenly find themselves speaking differently.

Walker is not comfortable with her situation and feels she is a different person. A BBC news report quoted her saying, "My sister-in-law said that I sounded Italian, then my brother said I sounded Slovakian and someone else said I sounded French Canadian."

"But the latest is that I sound Jamaican, I just don't know how to explain it," she said. "Everybody is obviously hearing me differently. I've lost my identity, because I never talked like this before. I'm a very different person and it's strange and I don't like it."

Scientists at Oxford University say patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome have suffered damage to tiny areas of the brain that affect speech. As a result, the victims draw out or clip the vowels in their speech, thereby mimicking the accent of a particular language.