Doctors believe it may be linked to a mini stroke or minor brain damage

There's been than 100 cases in past century of foreign accent syndrome

But after support from her family she decided to go public about condition

Alamia kept quiet for months after surgery - scared people might judge her

Mom-of-three was diagnosed with the very rare foreign accent syndrome

Lisa Alamia, of Texas, woke up with a British accent after her jaw surgery

Listening to Lisa Alamia speak, you would be forgiven for thinking she had grown up in the UK.

But while the mom-of-three may sound like Mary Poppins, she's a born and raised Texan - with an extremely rare neurological disorder which makes her speak with a British accent.

'People who don't know me, they're like, "Hey, where are you from?'' Alamia told KHOU 11. 'I'm from Rosenberg. They're like, 'Where is that?' I'm like, 'Right here in Rosenberg.' 'Oh, you're from here? How do you talk like that?' So that's where the whole story comes up.'

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Lisa Alamia, of Texas, woke up with a British accent after her jaw surgery due to a rare disorder

It all began around six months ago when Alamia went in for jaw surgery to address her under-bite.

When she woke up from the anesthesia, her Texan drawl had been replaced by a British accent.

'I thought she was joking with me,' said Kayla Alamia, Lisa Alamia's oldest daughter. 'But then she showed me that the doctor diagnosed her with foreign accent syndrome. Then I was like, 'Oh, Lord.''

Alamia was put through a battery of tests by doctors to check if she really had developed the syndrome, one of which forced her to repeat tongue twisters countless times.

But neurologist, Dr. Toby Yalto, at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital is still unable to say why she now speaks with a British accent.

Alamia kept silent for months after her surgery, scared people would judge her or even think she was making it all up.

Neurologist, Dr. Toby Yalto, (pictured with Alamia) at is unable to say why she now speaks with a British accent

Alamia was put through a battery of tests by doctors at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital (pictured) to check if she really had developed the syndrome, one of which forced her to repeat tongue twisters countless times

'I didn't know the reaction I was going to get from people,' she said. 'So I didn't know if they're going to judge me. Are they going to think I'm lying or even understand how I'm speaking?'

Thanks to the support of family and friends, Alamia said she is learning to live with her new voice although she occasionally still struggles to make herself understood by everyone around her.

'They're like now there's no way you sound 'hood at all,' her children told her. 'Even if you tried, you wouldn't be able to sound that way.

'My daughter laughs at the way I say 'tamales.' I used to be able to say it like a real Hispanic girl. Now, I cannot.'

Cases of foreign accent syndrome are very rare, with less than 100 people worldwide diagnosed in the past century.

Cases are very sporadic, there is no centre for the study of the syndrome and as a result sufferers are often sent to many different doctors before being diagnosed, she said.

As well as speaking in a seemingly foreign accent, sufferers also forget words or struggle to speak with correct grammar, she added.

Alamia kept silent for months after her surgery, scared people would judge her or even think she was making it all up. But thanks to the support of family and friends, Alamia said she is learning to live with her new voice

Alamia says her daughter Kylie (pictured left, with her mom and brother) still laughs at the way she pronounces certain words

The syndrome usually results from a stroke, but can also develop from head trauma, migraines or developmental problems.

Last year, an Atlanta, Georgia woman was diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome when she lost her American accent and began speaking with an array of twangs ranging from a Scottish to Eastern European.

FOREIGN ACCENT SYNDROME Foreign Accent Syndrome is speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a 'foreign' accent. Foreign Accent Syndrome is most often caused by damage to the brain caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Other causes have also been reported including multiple sclerosis and conversion disorder. In some cases no clear cause has been identified. Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation, and tongue placement, so that is perceived as sounding foreign. Listeners can usually still understand the sufferer's speech; it does not necessarily sound disordered. Foreign Accent Syndrome has been documented in cases around the world, including accent changes from Japanese to Korean, British English to French, American-English to British English, and Spanish to Hungarian. There have only ever been 150 confirmed cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome in the world so far. Advertisement

Linda Pereira, a mother-of-three, noticed the change following an 'eruption' in her brain while messaging a friend on Facebook in October last year.

Now, her voice interchanges between the Scandinavian sounds, German and sometimes switches to a Scottish or South African-twang.

Pereira says she even gets better service in restaurants and shops because staff think she is a tourist but was sad to lose her own accent.

'At first we all thought it was funny,' she said. 'We had a good time with it but I was always thinking it was temporary and going to go away.

'Now, this is how I know myself and I know it doesn't sound like me.'

In 2015 a 94-year-old Chinese woman woke up from a two-week coma speaking perfect English - but not a word of her native language.

A few years before, a British woman woke up speaking in a Chinese accent. Sarah Colwill has been told that the ultra-rare condition is permanent and cannot be cured.

The first recorded case of foreign accent syndrome was in 1941, when a Norwegian woman suffered a shrapnel injury to the head during an air raid.

After overcoming language problems she was left with a strong German accent.

In 1999 a woman from Sevenoaks, Kent, developed a French accent after a minor stroke even though she did not speak French and had only visited the country once for a weekend in Paris.