This study investigated the effect of speaking rate on aerodynamic and acoustic measures of velopharyngeal (VP) function in 27 adult speakers (14 M, 13 F). The pressure-flow method (Warren & Dubois, 1964) was used to collect aerodynamic data of /m/ and /p/ segments in the word “hamper” and the utterances “Mama made some lemon jam” (MMJ) and “Buy Bobby a puppy” (BBP). A Nasometer was used to collect nasalance scores and nasalance distance for MMJ and BBP. Measures were collected under 4 speaking rate conditions (normal, fast, slow, and slowest). Results indicated that nasal airflow and VP orifice area were unaffected by speaking rate whereas intraoral pressure decreased as speaking rate slowed. Nasalance was greater for BBP at slow speaking rates and nasalance distance (MMJ – BBP) decreased at slow rates. The data was interpreted with respect to expectations set forward in the literature on normal and disordered speech motor control.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/17507 |
| Date | 10 August 2009 |
| Creators | Gauster, Andrea |
| Contributors | Yunusova, Yana |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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