Effect of total laryngectomy on vowel production: An acoustic study of vowels produced by alaryngeal speakers of Cantonese

OBJECTIVE: The effects of the genioglossal muscle advancement on phonetic quality of speech were studied analyzing the acoustic features of vowel sounds. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The study group consisted of 5 men suffering from partial upper airway obstruction during sleep. To prevent tongue base collapse, genioglossal muscle advancement was made with chin osteotomy without hyoid myotomy and suspension. The speech material consisted of 8 vowels produced in sentence context repeated 10 times before the operation, and 10 days and 6 weeks after the operation. The acoustic features of vowels were analyzed. RESULTS: The operation had no significant effects on vowel quality. Only for 2 of the subjects the pitches changed systematically due to the operation. CONCLUSION: According to the acoustic analysis, genioglossal muscle advancement with chin osteotomy has no effects on vowel production. Some short-term changes were observed, but these changes were highly individual. SIGNIFICANCE: The operation seems to have no potential to change vowel production.

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Vowel Production in Winnipeg

The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique ◽

10.1017/s0008413100004023 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 51 (2-3) ◽

pp. 127-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Robert Hagiwara

Keyword(s):

Acoustic Analysis ◽

American English ◽

Similar Data ◽

Low Back ◽

Canadian English ◽

Vowel Production ◽

Acoustic Study ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Precise Characterization

AbstractGeneral properties of the Canadian English vowel space are derived from an experimental-acoustic study of vowel production underway in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Comparing the preliminary Winnipeg results with similar data from General American English confirms previously described generalizations for Canadian English: the merger of low-back vowels, the relative retraction of /æ/, and the relative advancement of /u/ and /Ʊ/. However, a similar comparison of the Winnipeg sample with comparable Southern California data disputes the accuracy of the claim that Canadian Shift (Clarke et al. 1995) is a feature of ‘general’ Canadian and Californian English. An acoustic analysis uncovers subtle phonetic distinctions that make possible a more precise characterization of Canadian Raising: rather than only adjusting the height of the nucleus, Winnipeg speakers produce a directional shift in both the nucleus and offglide of the diphthongs /aɪ, aƱ/; this process applies to all three diphthongs (including /oɪ/).

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Badanie wymowy w języku obcym – od teorii do praktyki

Neofilolog ◽

10.14746/n.2009.32.3 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 19-32

Author(s):

Ewa Waniek-Klimczak

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Speech Analysis ◽

Vowel Production ◽

Acoustic Study

Discussing different aims and methods of studying foreign language pronunciation, this article argues that it is the phonetic analysis of speech that offers the best tool for valid and reliable research. After a brief presentation of the articulatory, acoustic and auditory ways of conducting an analysis, the main aims for the pronunciation studies and the methods are discussed. In search for a link between theory and practice, a parametric acoustic study of non-native vowel production is proposed as an example of the application of speech analysis to the pedagogical context.

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