Meanings
- dateduncountableThe presence of a foreign accent, regarded as a speech defect.
The correction of barbaralalia (foreign accent) is in the strictest sense speech re-education, since the speech correctionist is aiding the foreign speaker to change one set of speech habits for another.
1941, Charlotte G. Wells, The Correction of Foreign Accent, page 341 more example
We may then summarize the usual defects of speech which characterize barbaralalia as follows: (1) sound substitutions (2) sound additions (3) sound omissions (4) misplaced stress (5) incorrect intonation.
1936, Herbert Koepp-Baker, A Handbook of Clinical Speech, volume 2, page 300
Cite this entry
barbaralalia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barbaralalia
“barbaralalia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barbaralalia. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barbaralalia,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barbaralalia.
Source: barbaralalia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.