Duration of Oral Port Constriction in Normal and Cleft Palate Speech
Duration of constriction, determined from measurements of intraoral pressure, was studied in 25 cleft palate and 20 normal subjects. The cleft palate group consisted of 15 subjects who achieved adequate velopharyngeal closure and 10 subjects who did not. All subjects were able to produce the test consonants intelligibily. Results reveal that the duration of oral port constriction is longest in cleft palate speakers with adequate closure and shortest in normals. It is possible that increasing the duration of constriction may reinforce sound generation and thereby improve consonant perception. The shorter intervals of constriction observed in the inadequate closure group may be due to the increase in nasal emission which presumably results when oral port constriction is prolonged. Within each palate group voiceless fricative consonants exhibited the longest intervals of oral port constriction. This is presumed to be due to the need for sufficient airflow through the oral port in order to provide the necessary acoustic cues for perception of these voiceless sounds.