摘要:

The first formant frequency of most German vowels can be ‘oversung’ in the sense of vocalizations with pitch frequencies above F1 of normal speech. Investigations of sung and synthesized vowels suggested that, with rising F0, either the vowel loses its identity and its spectral characteristics, or changes in the vocal effort and the speaker group are perceived. This study presents high-pitched vocalizations by untrained men, women and children, apart from singing or shouting. Three main results were found: (i) vowel identity can be maintained at high pitches (F0 = 660-870 Hz); (ii) clear spectral differences in high-pitched vowels are demonstrated; (iii) high-pitched vowels can be found within one speaker group, apart from changes in the perceived speaker group. Both the F0 dependence of the lower formants and a possible relationship between phonation and articulation are discus

ISSN:1021-7762    

DOI:10.1159/000266377

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1996

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

The aerodynamic bases of articulatory defects which characterize velopharyngeal insufficiency are not yet well defined. The purpose of our investigation has been to establish the type and the severity of aerodynamic alterations correlated with this syndrome before and after logopedic treatment; thus we have exposed the phoneme /p-i:/, produced by 20 control individuals and by 12 patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency, to an aerodynamic study by means of a computerized system (Aerophone II, FJ Electronics) able to record, at the same time, phonatory airflow, intraoral pressure, and sound intensity. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis by using Student’s t test. The results obtained before logopedic treatment documented: (1) a remarkable articulatory distortion during the implosion of/p/ by a two-phasic pressure wave with a reduced amplitude compared to the one registered in control group subjects (7.3 ± 2.8 cm H2O vs. 10.9 ± 2.7 cm H2O; mean ± SD; p < 0.01); (2) the presence of a nasal airflow in this same phase (0.13 ± 0.07 liters/s); (3) peak airflow relative to the explosion of /p/ inferior to the one recorded in the control group (0.41 ± 0.08 liters/s vs. 0.57 ± 0.11 liters/s; p < 0.01); (4) a mean ratio between the duration of the implosive phase of /p/ and that of the whole articulatory cycle inferior to the value recorded in the control group (34.8 ± 2.6% vs. 39.2 ± 2.3%; p < 0.01). At the end of logopedic treatment the aerodynamic investigation allowed to correlate the improvement of the speech defects due to rehabilitation to precise aerodynamic data: (1) a monophasic pressure wave with a peak (14.9 ± 4.7 cm H2O) that is higher than the one observed in the control group (p < 0.01) and the one observed in patients before therapy (p < 0.01); (2) a significant reduction of the nasal airflow recorded before logopedic treatment (0.04 ± 0.04 liters/s; p < 0.01); (3) a remarkable increase in peak airflow compared to the one recorded before logopedic treatment (0.93 ± 0.25 liters/s; p < 0.01); (4) a further reduction of the mean percentage ratio between the duration of the implosive phase of /p/ and that of the whole articulatory cycle (29.2 ± 2.0%; p < 0.01) as compared to the one recorded before logopedic treatment. The results of our investigation underline how many different aerodynamic factors are involved in the pathogenesis of articulatory defects of speech related to velopharyngeal insufficiency, and how they reciprocally interfere; furthermore, our data indicate that logopedic treatment does not always restore physiologic conditions, but often facilitates the realization of particular articulatory strategies which are not found in norm

ISSN:1021-7762    

DOI:10.1159/000266378

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1996

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Incorrect production of intonation contours is a common phonatory problem in prelingually, profoundly deaf speakers. To help deaf speakers improve this, a visual display system for teaching intonation has been developed. In this system, called the Intonation Meter, visual feedback of intonation is given as a continuous representation of the pitch contour containing only the perceptually relevant aspects of the intonation pattern. This pitch-contour representation is supposed to facilitate the interpretation of the visual feedback of the pitch contour. A study was carried out, using a Single-Subject Design, in which subjects alternately received intonation training by means of regular methods and intonation training by means of regular methods in which also use was made of the Intonation Meter, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Intonation Meter for teaching intonation to young deaf children. Prelingually profoundly deaf children aged 6 to 7 years and 9 to 11 years participated in this study. The results showed that the 9 to 11 year old children showed most progress when the Intonation Meter was used in intonation training whereas the 6 to 7 year olds progressed well irrespective of whether or not the Intonation Meter was used, which is in accordance with the theory of a critical period for language learning. Alternatively, it is hypothesized that the cognitive requirements of the visual feedback might be too advanced for very young children to be helpful in learning to produce certain pitch contours.

ISSN:1021-7762    

DOI:10.1159/000266379

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1996

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Acoustic differences between samples of [i], [u], and [a] uttered in nose-open and nose-obstructed condition were studied in 6 women with isolated cleft palate and pathological nasalance scores and 9 healthy women with normal nasalance scores. The speech samples were depicted by 14-component vocal tract area feature vectors obtained by linear prediction and the differences between the samples were studied with a self organized feature map. Each location on the map corresponds to a certain signal pattern, neighboring locations to similar patterns. The group of healthy subjects differed from the patients for the vowels [i] and [u] but not for [a]. In the patients the nose obstruction induced a significant change in the location of these vowel samples on the map. In healthy subjects no such changes were detected. The result agreed with perceived differences between the subjects.

ISSN:1021-7762    

DOI:10.1159/000266380

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1996

数据来源: Karger

ISSN:1021-7762    

DOI:10.1159/000266381

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1996

数据来源: Karger

ISSN:1021-7762    

DOI:10.1159/000266382

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1996

数据来源: Karger