Singer George Michael has revealed that he woke up from his three-week coma last speaking with a "vaguely Bristolian accent" while fighting pneumonia last November.

The former Wham! frontman, who almost died of pneumonia last year, said he was unable to talk in his usual London twang accent for two days after gaining consciousness and his family feared he'd be stuck with his new broad West Country accent forever.

"I swear this is true," Michael told London's LBC radio station on Tuesday. "I came out of my coma talking in this West Country accent."

The 49-year-old star recalled that when he opened his eyes and doctors asked him if he knew who he was, he had replied "King of the world?" in the distinctive West Country burr.

"My doctors were genuinely worried that I had this condition, it's a genuine thing where people wake from comas speaking French or some other language they learned at school," he told the radio station.

"Mine was two days of this vaguely Bristolian accent, and they were worried I could have spoken like that for the rest of my life. They were saying, 'Oh my God, he's got brain damage.' Not that there's anything wrong with the West Country accent - but it's a bit weird when you come from North London."

Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare medical condition in which people emerge from a brain injury speaking in an entirely different accent and in some cases speaking fluently in a language they barley know.

"My sisters, who were obviously so relieved that I'd actually woken up, were just laughing away at this standup comedy," said Michael.

The two-time Grammy Award-winner had to cut short his Symphonica tour last November after he was rushed to a hospital in Austria, Vienna with a severe case of pneumonia. Coming back to London last December he had tearfully told reporters that it had been "touch and go" at times during the month he spent in hospital recovering from the lung infection.

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