Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Lecturer, Speech Therapy Department, Rehabilitation Faculty, Hamadan University of Medical Science. Hamadan, Iran.
2
PhD Condidate. Speech Therapy Department, Rehabilitation Faculty, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
3
PhD, Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Research Center, Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
4
Speech Therapy Department, faculty of paramedical sciences, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran.
5
lecturer, speech therapy department, zahedan university of medical science, Iran
Abstract
Purpose:
Velopharyngeal coarticulation refers to the influence of a nasal consonant on preceding segments or the following segments during continuous speech. Coupling of the nasal resonating space to the oropharyngeal cavity alters the vocal tract formants in complex ways. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of nasal coarticulation and /a/ vowel frequency formants in cleft palate Persian speaking children.
Methods:
In present cross-sectional study, voice samples of 30 cleft palate children ranging 4-12 years were investigated. Participants were asked to repeat /ama/ three times and vowel /a/ after presentation of an auditory model. Afterwards, obtained samples were analyzed using Praat (version 5.3.13) software. Investigating the effect of nasalization on formants of /a/ vowel before and after nasal consonant and comparing with single prolonged /a/, “Bi-variate analysis of variance test” were used.
Results:
There were no significant differences of fundamental frequency (F0) between /a/ which proceeds nasal consonant and /a/ follows nasal consonant, the before nasal consonant /a/ versus single /a/ and the after nasal consonant /a/ versus single /a/ in normal and cleft palate children (P>0.05). However, findings revealed statistically significant differences of first, second and third formants (F1, F2, F3) between three situations (p<0.001).
Conclusions:
In the cleft palate children, F1, F2, F3 in /a/ before nasal consonant affected by anticipatory nasal coarticulation and in /a/ after nasal consonant affected by carry-over nasal coarticulation. This study showed nasal coarticulation and nasalization result in decreasing F1, F2, F3 in /a/ vowel.
Keywords
)