ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the acoustic features of plosive consonants in Uyghur as spoken by persons with post-palatoplasty velopharyngeal insufficiency.Methods Thirty-one Uyghur-speaking children without a speech disorder were selected as a control group,while 28 others with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) formed the VPI group.All were recorded speaking 9 Uyghur words which contain the plosive consonants/b/,/d/and/g/.The consonants' duration (CD),amplitude (CA),their first formants (VF1),second formants (VF2),third formants (VF3) and fourth formants (VF4) as voiced as well as the voice onset time (VOT) were measured and analyzed using the PRAAT software for the two groups.Results The VF1,VF3 and VF4 of the plosive consonant /b/ were significantly lower for those in the VPI group than among the controls,and the CD of/b/was significantlylonger.There were also significant differences between the two groups in terms of the VF1s,VF3s and CDs of the other plosive consonants.The VOTs of the consonant/b/,/d/ and/g/ were (0.12±0.05)s,(0.10±0.03)s and (0.09±0.03) s,respectively,with an occurrence rate of up to 100％ in the control group,significantly different from those in the VPI group (P＜0.05).Conclusion The acoustic features of the three plosive consonants/b/,/d/ and /g/ can distinguish Uyghur-speaking children with velopharyngeal insufficiency from those with normal speech.