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Speech and its perception
Published in Stanley A. Gelfand, Hearing, 2017
The nasals are produced by opening the port to the nasal cavities at the velum. They are semivowels in that they are voiced and have some of the formant characteristics of vowels; however, they differ from other sounds by the coupling of the nasal and oral cavities. The characteristics of nasals have been described by Fujimura (1962) and others (Cooper et al., 1952; Malécot, 1956; House, 1957; Kurowski and Blumstein, 1987). The coupling of the nasal cavities to the volume of oral cavity behind the point of obstruction (the velum for /ŋ/, alveolus for /n/, and lips for /m/) constitutes a side-branch resonator. This results in antiresonances at frequencies that become lower as the volume of the side branch (oral cavity) becomes larger. Thus, we find that antiresonances appear in the frequency regions of roughly 1000 Hz for /m/ (where the side branch is largest), 1700 Hz for /n/, and 3000 Hz for /ŋ/ (where the side branch is shortest). Furthermore, overall intensity is reduced, and for the first formant is lower than for the vowels, constituting a characteristic low-frequency nasal murmur. Place of articulation is cued by differences in spectrum of the nasal murmur (e.g., Kurowski and Blumstein, 1993), and spectral and amplitude changes at the juncture between the nasal and the adjoining vowel (e.g., Kurowski and Blumstein, 1987; Ohde et al., 2006).
The acoustic voice quality index version 02.02 in the Finnish-speaking population
Published in Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2020
Elina Kankare, Ben Barsties V. Latoszek, Youri Maryn, Marja Asikainen, Eija Rorarius, Sarkku Vilpas, Irma Ilomäki, Jaana Tyrmi, Leena Rantala, Anne-Maria Laukkanen
The present study investigated the validity of the AVQI in the Finnish-speaking population. The Finnish language represents the Finno-Ugric language family [24], which differs from all of the other language families in which the AVQI has been validated. The Finnish language has eight vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y, ä, ö, and seventeen consonants: p, t, k, (b), d, (g), m, n, ŋ, (f), s, (š i.e. ʃ), h, l, r, v, and j. The consonants in brackets are used mainly in some foreign loan words. None of the consonants are produced as aspirated. A tremulant/r/is produced with the tip of the tongue. The consonants/v/and/j/are semivowels in Finnish language. Both vowels and consonants appear in short and long variants. The appearance of vowels and consonants in the Finnish standard language is 47.9% and 52.1% [25]. In a cross-linguistic comparison, the ratio of vowels to consonants can be rated as moderately low [26], and the mean duration ratio of single over double vowels (V/VV) is 1: 2.3 in Finnish, whereas for example in English it is smaller (1:1.8) [27]. The Finnish language utilizes vowel harmony, and it is an agglutinative language (using many suffixes instead of prepositions), and therefore it is characterized by long word constructions.
Optimizing maps for electric acoustic stimulation users
Published in Cochlear Implants International, 2019
Yang-Soo Yoon, You-Ree Shin, Ji-Min Kim, Allison Coltisor, Young-Myoung Chun
Our main findings in the current study is that the Gap map provided a greater benefit for the EC group and the EAS group benefits more from the Meet map. This result suggests that spectral information processed by a HA and a CI is different or contrasting because spectral contents with the Gap and Meet maps are theoretically not overlapped on a HA and a CI. This result also suggests that EAS patients receive less auditory information processed with FO map that generates highly overlapped or comparable spectral information across a HA and a CI. These results suggest that the EAS benefit in speech and music perception may be limited by efficacy in comparable acoustic cue integration as opposed to the efficacy of contrasting acoustic cue integration across the two modalities. This point becomes even more interesting when compared with bimodal hearing. Bimodal benefit in speech perception is attributed to both lower frequency components [nasals, semivowels, diphthongs and F1] and higher frequency components [fricatives and F2] (Mok et al., 2006; Yoon et al., 2012). The bimodal benefit becomes greater when both ears have similar unilateral performance, and when the CI ear supported a superior level of monaural performance and evidence of binaural integration was absent (Ma et al., 2016; Yoon et al., 2015). Based on this knowledge, we can hypothesize that the integration processes in EAS hearing could be further enhanced by providing an input signal with more contrasting spectral information rather than comparable. Thereby, understanding the effect of the interactions of these low-frequency cues with those conveyed by the CI on the EAS benefit, we can improve ways to maximize the EAS benefit and extend the possibility.
Consonant accuracy and intelligibility of Southern Vietnamese children
Published in Speech, Language and Hearing, 2022
Xuan Thi Thanh Le, Sharynne McLeod, Ben Phạm
Vietnamese is commonly spoken throughout the world (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig, 2020), including by the 96 million people living in Viet Nam (Tổng cục Thống kê [General Statistics Office of Vietnam] 2020). There are three main Vietnamese dialects: Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnamese (Đinh & Nguyễn, 1998; Đoàn, 2003; Hoàng, 2004; Nguyễn, 1997; Phạm & McLeod, 2016; Vũ, 1982) and each dialect has many sub-dialects. One of the defining features between dialects is that each includes different consonants, semivowels, vowels, and tones. The Ministry of Education in Viet Nam supports research into Vietnamese speech acquisition and has implemented developmental standard 65 ‘to speak clearly’ for 5-year-old children (The Viet Nam Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), 2010). To date, there has been limited research into Vietnamese children’s speech acquisition, or indeed regarding speech acquisition for children who speak tone languages (cf. Cantonese; To, Cheung, & McLeod, 2013). To date, there have been three studies of typically developing Vietnamese children’s speech acquisition written in Vietnamese (Lưu, 1996; Nguyễn, 2011; Nguyễn & Phạm, 2014), two studies of typically developing Northern Vietnamese children’s speech acquisition written in English (Phạm & McLeod, 2019; Phạm, McLeod, & Harrison, 2017) and two studies of Southern Vietnamese children with speech sound disorders, one in Vietnamese and the other in English (Hoàng, Trà, Nguyễn, Trần, & Cao, 2019; Tang & Barlow, 2006). These studies provide an emerging understanding of children’s acquisition of Vietnamese consonants, vowels, semivowels and tones. For example, the research undertaken to describe typically developing children’s speech undertaken in Northern Viet Nam was the first stage of operationalizing standard assessments for use by the emerging speech-language pathology (called speech and language therapy) profession in Viet Nam. Phạm and McLeod (2019) studied 195 typically developing northern Vietnamese children and described PCC, typical non-adult productions, and phonological patterns on the Vietnamese Speech Assessment (VSA) and Phạm et al. (2017) described 182 northern Vietnamese children’s intelligibility at different ages as reported by their parents using the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS-VN). To date, there has been limited research that has been conducted with children who speak Southern Vietnamese (Nguyễn, 2011; Nguyễn & Phạm, 2014; Tang & Barlow, 2006), despite the fact that the Southern dialect is spoken by two thirds of Vietnamese people (Hoàng, 2004) and the pronunciation of many consonants and tones is different from Northern and Central Viet Nam. There is a need for more research into speech acquisition of children who speak Southern Vietnamese to increase understanding of typically developing children’s speech acquisition to assist speech-language pathologists’ assessment, diagnosis and intervention planning for children with speech sound disorders across the world (McLeod & Crowe, 2018).