Alternating antagonism between two languages with successive recovery of a third in a trilingual aphasic patient.

The recovery of the languages of an aphasic patient premorbidly almost equally proficient in Farsi and German, with a good knowledge of English, is described. For the first week post-trauma, the patient was in no condition to speak. He then spoke only a little Farsi for 5 days, after which he spoke only German for the next 3 weeks, even when addressed in Farsi by his unilingual relatives. The patient then switched back to using only Farsi for 4 days, after which he regained voluntary control over each of his languages, including English. The patient was repeatedly assessed with equivalent versions of the BAT (M. Paradis et al. 1987, Bilingual Aphasia Test). His residual capacities across languages are described. The patient differs from previously reported cases in that even his comprehension of Farsi was impaired during the period when only German was available for expression. The patient recovered voluntary control over the use of his three languages 1 1/2 months postonset.