ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate acoustic characteristics of VC coarticulation for males in Mandarin . Methods This study compared nasal flow of 32 male adults'production which include /an/,/in/,/?n/,/a?/,/i?/,/??/,/a/,/i/,/?/.Results Whether /a /,/i/or /?/,the nasal flow of vowels before /n/was greater than the na-sal flow of vowels before /?/was greater than the nasal flow of vowels themselves .When produced solely ,the na-sal flow of /i/was greater than the nasal flow of /a/,/?/ .Before nasal consonants /n/,/?/ ,the nasal flow of /i/was greater than the nasal flow of /?/which was greater than the nasal flow of /a/.Conclusion Vowels before nasal consonants can be nasalized .The nasalization of /n/to vowel is greater than that of /?/to vowel .When nasals is produced around ,the nasalization of vowel depends on the height of the tongue .The nasal flow of vowels can be used as an effective measure and monitor the indicators before and after nasal coarticulatin .
ABSTRACT
Objective This study is to analyze the fundamental frequencies of different speech materials . Methods 60 normal subjects (22 males ,38 females) were studied .When pronouncing /a/,/i/,/u/and the short paragraphs ,the fundamental frequencies were measured using Praat software .Results The analysis of the funda‐mental frequencies for different materials indicates that /i/and /u/were the highest while /a/was the next and the paragraphs were the lowest .For males ,the fundamental frequencies from high to low were:148 .47 Hz ,146 .77 Hz ,136 .33 Hz ,and 132 .85 Hz ;for females ,they were:257 .39 Hz ,250 .52 Hz ,239 .43 Hz and 222 .16 Hz .The experimental results showed that there was no significant difference between the fundamental frequencies of vowels between the two genders but there were significant differences when pronouncing different vowels among the female subjects .Conclusion When measuring fundamental frequencies ,reading short paragraphs can be more accurate and the vowel /a/is more useful in this purpose .
ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze implanted children's production of vowels and to investigate the features of vowels production .Methods Thirty CI children averaged 32 .65 ± 5 .97 months were enrolled in this study .Using 19 Chinese vowels as test materials ,accuracy rates were statistically analyzed to get the difficulty gradient and main error patterns .Results /a/and /e/were the easiest vowels and /üe/,/uai/,/ü/were the most difficult vowels for CI children .From the mouth shape of vowels ,the difficulty gradients from easy to difficult were open -mouths →e-ven-teeth → close-mouths → pursed -mouths .From the structures of vowels ,triphthongs were the most diffi-culty ,while single vowels and diphthongs shared the same difficulty level .High vowel's nasalization ,the deletion of diphthongs and triphthongs ,the separation of diphthongs and triphthongs and the substitution of /o/,/ü/,and /ai/were the main error patterns .Conclusion The difficulty levels of vowels'production for CI children at average age of 31 months are rather obvious .Compared with aided children ,they show some common developmental sequences and error patterns ,but also reflect their own characteristics .When in vowel articulation therapy for little CI children ,we should provide targeted training according to error patterns on the basis of following their sequences of difficulty level to fa-cilitate their efficiency .