Experts say that 60-year-old Linda Walker may have Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition where patients speak differently after a brain injury.
Mrs Walker hates what has happened to her and said: "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.
"Everybody is obviously hearing me differently."
Researchers at Oxford University have discovered that patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome have damaged tiny areas of the brain that affect speech with the result that often a lengthening or clipping of the vowels that mimic the accent of a particular country takes place even though the sufferer has had little exposure to that particular accent.
Foreign Accent Syndrome was first identified during World War II, when a Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel damage to her brain and went on to develop a strong German accent, which led to her being ostracised by her community.
Dr Nick Miller, a senior lecturer in speech language science at Newcastle University, said the condition could happen to patients who had suffered a stroke or other injury to the brain.
