Pathophysiology of Nasopharyngeal Articulation: Sound analysis and observation of articulatory movement

Abstract

This paper reports on the analysis of a type of articulation error which has been generally called “nasal articulation.” The results are summarized as follows : 1) Soundspectrograms of this type of error showed formant patterns different from those of normal sounds. For consonants, spike fills and weak noise components ranging from low to high frequency were observed. For vowels, formants of nasal resonance were observed at the frequency range of 200 to 300 Hz. 2) Abnormal articulatory movements were observed by cineradiography, fiberscopy and electro-palatography. In this type of articulation error, contact between the tongue and hard or soft palate closes the oral cavity and directs the air flow and sound to the nasal cavity. When the error occurs in stop or fricative consonants, stop closure or fricative constriction are made at the nasopharyngeal port. In vowels, articulatory movements are similar to those for /n/ or /u/. © 1987, The Japan Society of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. All rights reserved.