Articulation Of Speech Sounds Research Articles

Le voyage d’Alice: A standardized reading passage for speech and voice assessment in French.

Background: Reading passages allow the observation of target stimuli in a controlled manner while maximizing the ecological aspects of a speech and voice assessment. Objective: This article presents a new standardized reading passage titled “Le voyage d’Alice” (“Alice's Journey”) and an automated protocol for the extraction of acoustic measures. Methods: The passage was constructed using a comprehensive set of criteria, taking into account data from the literature, specific needs identified in scientific research and in French-speaking clinical practice, and data from an international consensus study. Results: This passage was found to be easy to read and usable for the assessment of articulation of speech sounds, prosodic variations and phonatory behavior, as well as fluency, in Belgium, France, and Canada. The automated acoustic feature extraction protocol allows for a quick and simple analysis of reproducible data. It is a tool adapted for both scientific research and daily clinical practice. Acoustic measures were extracted from the passage in healthy participants in France and are used as reference values.

Neurocomputational modeling of speech motor development.

This review describes a computational approach for modeling the development of speech motor control in infants. We address the development of two levels of control: articulation of individual speech sounds (defined here as phonemes, syllables, or words for which there is an optimized motor program) and production of sound sequences such as phrases or sentences. We describe the DIVA model of speech motor control and its application to the problem of learning individual sounds in the infant's native language. Then we describe the GODIVA model, an extension of DIVA, and how chunking of frequently produced phoneme sequences is implemented within it.

A Study of Selected Igbo Television Presenters’ Pronunciation of English Speech Sounds

The English language is used to solve the problem of language variation or problems emanating from language variation in Nigeria. Mass media plays a major role in conveying information to the general public. The conveyance of information is possible and easy when appropriate linguistic tools as well as the correct pronunciation of words are employed. However, there is always the implication of wrong pronunciation on the listeners whenever television presenters do not articulate words correctly. Some television presenters are faced with the problem of mother tongue interference which may lead to the incorrect articulation of English speech sounds. This is responsible for the phonological errors that are evident in the speeches of many television presenters, especially from the Igbo speech communities with significant implications on the educational performance of Nigerian youths who see them as stars and also imitate their phonological errors. The study, therefore, investigates the pronunciation of English speech sounds of selected Igbo television presenters. Data for the study were gathered from four (4) randomly selected television stations and one (1) purposively selected television station. These stations were selected because they are widely watched and some of them are award-winning television stations. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentage frequency. The result of the study reveals that the presenters in this study substitute /t/ for // and /d/ for /ð/; /Ɔ/ and /Ɔ:/ for //; /Ɔ:/, /a/, or /e/ for /ɜ:/ and /i/, /a/ or /e/ for /ǝ/. The reason for this is the fact that the central Igbo consonantal inventory has no dental fricatives // and /ð/ and at the vowel level, it has no central vowels //, /ɜ:/ and /ǝ/. So, interference occurs in the pronunciation of these sounds. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the phonological aspect of the English language should be handled by specialists; Nigerians should be sensitized on the need for proficiency in oral English hence, it should be one of the criteria for selection of television presenters.

Growth of the hard palate between the ages of 6 and 10 years: A longitudinal study

Several studies have found that the shape of the palate can affect articulation of speech sounds, but not much information is available characterizing the three-dimensional shape of the palate. This is especially important in children, since their speech is maturing at the same time that the palate is still growing. This study examines the longitudinal growth of the palate from 8 children between the ages of 6 and 10 years, based on high-resolution three-dimensional digitized palate impressions. Measures of palate width, height, depth, and symmetry were derived from three anatomically defined points: the marginal gingiva between the front teeth, and between the second premolar and the first molar on both sides. While palate height was most difficult to measure accurately, it was also most highly correlated with age (R2 = .42, p<.001), while palate depth, width, and symmetry were poorly correlated with age (R2<.07, p>.17). Age and standing height were strongly correlated (R2 = .77, p<.001). At the individual level, palate height appeared to grow linearly with age, while the growth of palate width and depth was nonlinear and even non-monotonic, indicating a complex interaction between growth and the ongoing structural rearrangement of dentition in this age group. [Work supported, in part, by the NSF.]

Voice and Communication in News Anchors: What is the Impact of the Passage of Time?

IntroductionNews anchors, as high-performance voice professionals, may be subject to voice and communication changes throughout their careers. ObjectiveTo compare the overall degree of vocal deviation, use of vocal and nonverbal resources, pleasantness and expressiveness of Brazilian journalists - news anchors - at 2 time points: at the beginning of their career and late in their career, when they are at an old age. MethodsA longitudinal observational study that analyzed voice samples collected indirectly from 20 professional male journalists at 2 time points with a minimum interval of 25 years: at the beginning of the career (T1) and at present (T2). The journalists were 60 years old or older, and the samples were narratives with similar communicative content. The overall degree of vocal deviation and use of vocal resources (presence/absence of vocal alteration, vocal attack, loudness, pitch, resonance, articulation of speech sounds, speech speed and breath-speech coordination) and nonverbal resources (emphasis, pauses, rhythm and loudness and pitch variations) were analyzed. Nine judges analyzed the expressiveness and pleasantness of the participants’ voices. The results. The mean age of the participants was 38.6 years at T1 and 73.7 years at T2. Differences observed between T1 and T2 included greater overall degree of deviation at T2; greater presence of vocal alterations; and worsening of vocal attack, loudness, pitch, articulation and breath-speech coordination. A directly proportional correlation between pleasantness and expressiveness and an inversely proportional correlation between pleasantness and expressiveness and the overall degree of vocal deviation were observed. ConclusionWorsening of some vocal aspects was observed; however, the participants’ nonverbal characteristics, pleasantness and expressiveness were unchanged throughout their careers.

Speech language pathologists’ beliefs and knowledge-base for providing pronunciation instruction

Abstract A number of studies have investigated the degree to which language instructors are prepared to offer pronunciation instruction (PI), but little research has addressed the readiness of another group of professionals, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), who are increasingly offering pronunciation instruction under the term foreign accent modification (FAM). To address this gap, the study reported here investigates the extent to which SLPs who offer PI are equipped to do so. We surveyed 54 SLPs who offer PI in North America, focusing on their beliefs, and the extent to which they are able to critically evaluate a range of statements and materials obtained from pronunciation resources. Results indicated that while survey respondents may have transferrable knowledge with respect to the articulation of speech sounds, many of their beliefs and practices are not grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the field. We recommend that SLPs offering PI should first receive specialized training in this area.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ОРТОДОНТИЧЕСКОГО ЛЕЧЕНИЯ С ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕМ ЛИНГВАЛЬНЫХ БРЕКЕТ-СИСТЕМ

Malocclusion and imperfect placement of teeth can have a big impact on the smile, well-being and quality of life. As a result of the treatment of pathological and abnormal bite, many children and adults are forced to use braces to improve their bite. The consequences of treatment are different: inflammation and itching, edema of the oral mucosa and maxillary sinuses, headaches, fever. All this depends on the human physiological characteristics, as well as adaptation to this artificial structure, which actually shifts the teeth from a pathological position to a physiological one. Correcting the bite with lingual braces has a key advantage. The main thing is the ability to cope with the psychological barrier that inevitably arises when wearing vestibular braces. But there is also a disadvantage that manifests itself in a short-term speech disorder for 2-3 months. This article discusses the procedure for making lingual braces, the stages and principles of installing lingual braces, recommendations for the care and wearing of the structure, as well as the impact of these braces on the speech apparatus and articulation of speech sounds and the possible development of logoneurosis due to treatment with lingual braces.

Main reasons that lead popular-music singing teachers to seek speech-language pathology assistance for their students.

To identify the parameters that influences the decision of singing teachers to seek speech-language pathology (SLP) assistance for their students. The study sample comprised 48 popular-music singing teachers, male and female, aged 37.96 years on average. The participants responded to a 10 closed-question questionnaire prepared by the researchers via the SurveyMonkey platform. The questions referred to the reasons why singing teachers seek SLP assistance, as well as to the knowledge of these teachers regarding chronic hoarseness as a risk symptom to identify other lesions in the larynx. Singing teachers seek SLP assistance for their students in the presence of hoarseness complaints and impaired speech sound articulation. The singing teachers assessed did not consider vocal tiredness complaint as a determining factor for referral to SLP evaluation. Most study participants were not aware that a hoarseness complaint for over 15 days can be indicative of larynx tumor. There was no influence of the variables age and time of professional experience in the referral to SLP assistance. Most of the singing teachers who participated in this study sought SLP assistance for their students when they presented hoarseness complaints and impaired speech sound articulation.

An ultrasound study of American English laterals produced by first graders

Longitudinal studies of child speech production development have traditionally relied on perceptual evaluation and acoustics to track acquisition norms and phonological patterns. The present study administers novel techniques in speech imaging to investigate the articulation and acoustics of speech sounds in developing children, focusing on the lateral sound /l/ as produced by first graders. Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound images with synchronous audio and video recordings were collected from L1 English speaking children. The stimuli were sourced from the GFTA-3—a clinical picture-naming instrument—which was administered by a speech-language pathology student-clinician. Three-dimensional tongue surface reconstructions and the accompanying audio signals were then compared across tokens and across speakers to find common and divergent patterns for lateral sounds. The results show highly variable articulatory strategies that nevertheless can be categorized into three groups. The wide articulatory variety is not obviously tied to acoustic variability, which is relatively small; formant positions are relatively consistent across tokens and across subjects, with few outliers. From the acoustics alone, these children consistently produce what is traditionally described as the dark /l/, but articulation suggests greater variety. Longitudinal studies of child speech production development have traditionally relied on perceptual evaluation and acoustics to track acquisition norms and phonological patterns. The present study administers novel techniques in speech imaging to investigate the articulation and acoustics of speech sounds in developing children, focusing on the lateral sound /l/ as produced by first graders. Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound images with synchronous audio and video recordings were collected from L1 English speaking children. The stimuli were sourced from the GFTA-3—a clinical picture-naming instrument—which was administered by a speech-language pathology student-clinician. Three-dimensional tongue surface reconstructions and the accompanying audio signals were then compared across tokens and across speakers to find common and divergent patterns for lateral sounds. The results show highly variable articulatory strategies that nevertheless can be categorized into three groups. The wide articulatory vari...

Phonological Abilities in Persian Speaking Preschool Children with Stuttering and Fluent Peers.

Speech sound production is poorer in stutterers than normally fluent peers. This study was performed to compare speech sound production abilities in Persian speaking children with developmental stuttering. Overall, 34 children with stuttering and 60 children without stuttering aged from 3 to 6 yr old were enrolled from Ahvaz City, Khuzestan Province, southern Iran in 2016. The phonetic information test was used to assess speech sound production in this study and 30-minute mother-child conversations were utilized for calculation of Percentage Consonant Correct. Phonological abilities of these two groups were compared against each other and a correlation between stuttering severity and speech sound articulation was calculated. There was significant difference between children with stuttering and normal peers for articulation error total percentage but not significant difference was found for percentage consonant correct (P=0.16). Moreover, no significant correlation between stuttering severity and speech sound production in this population was found. No association seems to exist between stuttering severity and speech sound production abilities in this population. This study may lead to the notion that there was significant difference between the two groups in speech sound production assessment.

Self-assessment of communication resources used by sales representatives and its relation with sales performance.

To analyze the self-assessment of communication resources used by sales representatives and its relation with their sales performance. The study counted with 55 sales representatives, 46 men and 9 women, between 24 and 56 years old. In the first phase of the study, participants answered questions related to identification data, self-assessment protocols of vocal behavior and communicative resources; besides that, they were asked to select the positive and negative communication resources of their own speech during the sales. In the next phase, the participants were divided into two groups according to their sales performance: Group A (GA), individuals with better sales performance and Group B (GB), individuals with worst sales performance. The data were statistically analyzed. Regarding the vocal behavior self-assessment, the sales representatives considered their voice quality as normal, their vocal pitch, loudness and speech rate as regular and as having an expressive voice. Regarding the communicative behavior, there was low presence of regionalism, use of gesture and use of other support resources during the sales; contrarily, there was high occurrence of precise articulation of speech sounds, visual contact, lack of inhibition to talk, time monitoring and objectivity of the speech. The sales representatives' self-assessment was positive for the objectivity of the speech, knowledge of the subject and use of proper vocabulary; it was negative for, lack of subject domain, criticism and prejudgment, and improper vocabulary. The self-assessment was similar in GA and GB.

Artikulacione i fonološke sposobnosti dece uzrasta od pet do sedam godina

The development of the child's speech sound articulation ability and phonological awareness goes through different stages during the child's preschool years. The aim of our research was to determine the articulation abilities and phonological awareness level in children with typical development. Our sample comprised 195 children aged five to seven. Speech sound articulation abilities and phonological awareness were assessed by means of the Global Test of Articulation and the FONT Phonological Awareness Test. The research results indicate that, depending on age, 42% to 78.3% of children are able to articulate clearly all 30 sounds of the Serbian language. An analysis of the Phonological Awareness Test results shows children performed best in the following tasks: syllable blending (99.1%), syllable segmentation (85%) and initial phoneme identification (86.1%), while they were least successful in the task of initial phoneme deletion (48.8%). Results have shown that children's success in most tasks within the framework of the elements of phonological awareness assessed - such as initial phoneme identification, rhyme recognition, phoneme segmentation, final phoneme identification, initial phoneme deletion and phoneme substitution (initial phoneme) - increases with children's age. The development of final phoneme identification, initial phoneme deletion and phoneme substitution (initial phoneme) abilities continues after children start school, as shown by data on the success rate among seven-year-olds. In view of the fact that phonological awareness plays an important role in the development and acquisition of reading ability, when working with preschool-age children particular attention should be devoted to tasks that stimulate the development of phonological awareness.

Building a multilingual ultrasound corpus

This paper presents a corpus of three dimensional ultrasound data focused on tongue shape during speech sound articulation. Our ultimate goal is to collect data pertinent to phonetic structures from as many languages as possible (at present upwards of 20 languages are represented) and to curate these data in an open access corpus that is freely available for use by other researchers. In this presentation, we review the structure of the corpus and present a series of case studies illustrating the ways in which three-dimensional data are being used to address questions of phonetic interest. Examples of such areas include: examining the articulation of laterals; determining the point of articulation for dorsal consonants; analyzing consonant and vowel coarticulation patterns; and elucidating how coupling of the tongue body with the tongue blade and root affect place and manner of articulation. Like the work of Allard Jongman and Joan Sereno, this project is inherently collaborative and includes ample opportunity for using guided investigation of targeted research questions to ease novice scholars into the research process.

Speech-language pathology student–clinicians’ self-awareness of tongue position during rhotic sound production in American English

Proprioceptive signals from tongue positions are not strong, meaning it can be challenging to teach the articulation of speech sounds to language learners. Some of the most prevalent speech sound disorders in American English involve the rhotic /ɹ/. Speech-language pathologists provide modeling and feedback to their clients during treatment. Since tongue shape is not readily visible during rhotic production, clinicians rely heavily on verbal descriptions and auditory feedback to explain sounds to their clients. It is currently unclear how closely these approaches mirror or depend on veridical descriptions of tongue shape. An example from musical education provides an instructive backdrop: Although clarinet teachers frequently describe raising the tongue body for high notes, the tongue body must physically lower [Lulich et al., 2017 JASA]. Students successfully learn to play high notes regardless of the accuracy of the description, but would clarinet instruction be more effective if it reflected physical reality? Analogous issues and questions can be raised in the context of speech-language pathology. This study presents preliminary results of an investigation of student-clinicians’ self-awareness of tongue position during rhotic sounds.

Dysarthria in Mandarin-Speaking Children With Cerebral Palsy: Speech Subsystem Profiles.

This study explored the speech characteristics of Mandarin-speaking children with cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing (TD) children to determine (a) how children in the 2 groups may differ in their speech patterns and (b) the variables correlated with speech intelligibility for words and sentences. Data from 6 children with CP and a clinical diagnosis of moderate dysarthria were compared with data from 9 TD children using a multiple speech subsystems approach. Acoustic and perceptual variables reflecting 3 speech subsystems (articulatory-phonetic, phonatory, and prosodic), and speech intelligibility, were measured based on speech samples obtained from the Test of Children's Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin (developed in the lab for the purpose of this research). The CP and TD children differed in several aspects of speech subsystem function. Speech intelligibility scores in children with CP were influenced by all 3 speech subsystems, but articulatory-phonetic variables had the highest correlation with word intelligibility. All 3 subsystems influenced sentence intelligibility. Children with CP demonstrated deficits in speech intelligibility and articulation compared with TD children. Better speech sound articulation influenced higher word intelligibility, but did not benefit sentence intelligibility.

Novel Technique for Replication of Natural Palatal Anatomy onto the Maxillary Permanent Denture Base within an Even Thickness

ABSTRACT Aim A technique to reproduce the exact natural anatomy of the palatal surface, known as “anatomical contour” in even thickness onto the maxillary permanent denture base. Background In constructing oral prostheses, dentists are pri- marily concerned with replacing structural losses. However, we are necessarily adding to regions having no structural loss, e.g., the hard palate region. When these structures are covered by a denture, the proprioceptive feedback mechanism is changed and, naturally, dentures affect phonetics, which causes a tem- porary change in the articulation of speech sounds. Technique A metal ring plate in standardized different thick- nesses (1.5, 2, and 2.5 mm), which adapt to dental flask lower base, is made and used in the routine fabrication method of denture base processing. Conclusion The quick and easy methods of replicated entire individualized natural anatomical palatal contour, in various even thicknesses in the permanent maxillary denture base, including the incisive papilla, palatine suture, and palatal rugae, can be employed to newly fabricate maxillary complete dentures. Clinical significance This is a comprehensive approach to utilize the collective factors of suggested methods, techniques, and conclusion by various authors for speech improvement with maxillary denture. How to cite this article Sekar CG, Sabarigrinathan C, Vinayagavel K, Ramkumar K, Dhanraj M. Novel Technique for Replication of Natural Palatal Anatomy onto the Maxillary Permanent Denture Base within an Even Thickness. Int J Prosthodont Restor Dent 2017;7(3):92-96.

Speech Sound Disorders: What's Motor Got To Do With It?

Speech sound disorders (SSDs) are commonly viewed as involving impaired articulation and/or phonological skills. Speech language pathologists working with individuals with (SSDs) assess the articulation of speech sounds and the coordination of articulatory structures with other components of the speech mechanism, including the phonatory, respiratory, and resonatory subsystems. The sound system of the language and the rules that govern how phonemes are combined are equally critical for clinicians to explore. While the terms “articulation” and “phonology” provide clinicians with a framework for classification, children who are broadly identified with (SSDs) may also display characteristics of a motor speech impairment, which can obscure the decision making process with respect to both diagnosis and treatment. One such motor speech disorder is childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). The focus of this paper is to discuss motor speech deficits in children and to review research that aims to distinguish motor speech patterns in children with (SSDs) with and without CAS. We will also address the relationship between emerging speech motor and linguistic skills.

Real-time three-dimensional ultrasound imaging of pre- and post-vocalic liquid consonants in American English

Speech sound articulation is typically characterized in the mid-sagittal plane. However, lateral segments, such as the /l/ category in most varieties of English, are usually identified in introductory phonetics courses as exceptions to this rule. On the other hand, many productions of post-vocalic /l/ in varieties spoken in the lower Mid-west U.S. are noted as being non-lateral, involving only a dorsal articulation very different from the canonical coronal occlusion. Furthermore, a large body of literature indicates multi-constriction articulations, which vary by syllable position, for liquids like American English /l/ and /r/. This research presents results from a study of constriction location and laterality in pre- and post-vocalic /l/ and /r/ using real-time 3D ultrasound images of tongue motion, digitized impressions of the palate, and time-aligned acoustic signals.

Augmenting acoustic phonetics with articulatory features for phone recognition

In articulatory phonetics, a phoneme’s identity is specified by its articulator-free (manner) and articulator-bound (place) features. Previous studies have shown that acoustic-phonetic features (APs) can be used to segment speech into broad classes determined by the manner of articulation of speech sounds; compared to MFCCs, however, APs perform poorly in determining place of articulation. This study explores the combination of APs with vocal Tract constriction Variables (TVs) to distinguish phonemes according to their place of articulation for stops, fricatives and nasals. TVs were estimated from acoustics using speech inversion systems trained on the XRMB database with pellet trajectories converted into TVs. TIMIT corpus sentences were first segmented into broad classes using a landmark based broad class segmentation algorithm. Each stop, fricative and nasal speech segment was further classified according to its place of articulation: stops were classified as bilabial (/P/, /B/), alveolar (/T/, /D/) or velar (/K/, /G/); fricatives were classified as labiodental (/F/, /V/), alveolar (/TH/, /DH/, /S/, /Z/), palatal (/SH/, /ZH/) or glottal (/HH/); and nasals were classified as bilabial (/M/), alveolar (/N/) or velar (/NG/). Polynomial kernel support vector machines were trained on APs concatenated with vocal tract constriction features. Results showed that combining acoustic and articulatory features leads to reliable recognition of manner and place of articulation, and improves phone recognition.

ARTICULATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS OF SERBIAN LANGUAGE IN CHILDREN AGED SIX TO EIGHT.

Phonetic and phonological system of the healthy members of one linguistic community is fully formed around 8 yedrs of age. The auditory and articulatory habits are established with age and tend to be more difficult to be upgraded and completed later. The research was done as a cross-sectional study, conducted at the preschool institution "Radosno detinjstvo" and primary school "Branko Radičević" in Novi Sad. It included 66 children of both genders, aged 6 to 8. The quality of articulation was determined according to the Global Articulation Test by working with each child individually. In each individual vowel, plosive, nasal, lateral and fricative, the quality of articulation was statistically significantly better in the first graders compared to the preschool children (p<0.01). In each affricate, except for the sound /ć/, the quality of articulation was statistically significantly better in the first graders than in the preschool children (p<0.01). The quality of articulation of all speech sounds was statistically significantly better in the first graders than in the preschool children (p<0.01). The most common disorder of articulation is distortion, while only substitution and substitution associated with distortion are less common. Omission does not occur in children from 6 to 8 years of age. Girls have slightly better quality of articulation. The articulatory disorders are more common in preschool children than in children who are in the first grade of primary school. The most commonly mispronounced sounds belong to the group of affricates and fricatives.