Electronic Measurement of Nasality: A Study of Normal-Speaking Adults

Abstract

Electronic measurement of nasality, desirable in clinical and medical services dealing with the speech defective, has been shown possible using the voice systems nasality meter. Previous studies indicate that the circuit, measuring phase shift of the second formant, has the potential of recognizing nasal components of the human vocal utterance. The authors developed a clinically useful test in a preliminary study. Using this on 200 normal-speaking college age adults, this report presents norms on this population. The meter measures phase shift two ways, either comparing amounts of energy stored in two separate circuits or by balancing the two circuits using a calibration dial. By the first method, males showed a mean difference of 1.2, a range from −1.0 to 3.1. Females had an average difference of 1.4, a range from −4.0 to 0.4. Using the calibration meter (reading from 0.0 to 99.9), males scored an average of 41.9, a range of 16.0 to 75.0, a standard deviation of 12.5 Females scored an average of 16.7, a range of 1.0 to 33.0, a standard deviation of 6.9. This difference was significant at the 0.002 level of confidence. Possible reasons for this difference are suggested.