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The Stressful Scone

Curious CasesSeries 12

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?” 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: [email protected]

Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry

Producer: Michelle Martin

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.

Available now

33 minutes

Last on

Thu 2 Dec 202121:45
BBC Radio 4 Extra

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Broadcasts

  • Wed 28 Nov 201809:30
    BBC Radio 4
  • Wed 28 Nov 201820:45
    BBC Radio 4
  • Sun 28 Nov 202110:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Sun 28 Nov 202121:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Thu 2 Dec 202111:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Thu 2 Dec 202121:45
    BBC Radio 4 Extra

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    Hannah Fry and Dara Ó Briain tackle listeners' conundrums with the power of science!