scholarly journals The Swallowing and Voicing Characteristics of Pharyngeal Dystonia: A Single Case Report

2001 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
Loren Kahn ◽  
Heila Jordaan
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Single Case Report ◽  
Swallowing Difficulties ◽  
Swallowing Difficulty ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Voice

This paper describes the swallowing difficulty and abnormal voicing characteristics of a subject with pharyngeal dystonia. This rare form of dystonia, considered to be a neurological condition resulting in involuntary spasm of the muscles of the pharynx, has not been documented in terms of its effects on the acoustic properties of the voice. This study revealed that during pharyngeal spasm, there are significant delays in voice onset time, a reduction in fundamental frequency, an increased percentage of sub-harmonics and variability in the amplitude perturbation quotient as well as shimmer. There was also evidence of these characteristics during periods of 'spasm-free' voice production, suggesting that the condition might be more consistent than what the subject described. Resonance disturbances were observed in spasm, which might explain the 'hollow' and affected voice quality. The subject also reported severe swallowing difficulties during the periods of spasm, characterised by a tight constriction at the level of the subject's throat. It is clear that an abnormality at the level of the cricopharyngeal muscle has a dual effect on the acoustic properties of the voice and on swallowing.

Acoustic classification of coronal stops of Eastern Punjabi

Phonetica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qandeel Hussain ◽  
Alexei Kochetov
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Quality Measures ◽  
Spectral Measures ◽  
Cepstral Peak Prominence ◽  
Laryngeal Configurations ◽  
Acoustic Classification

Abstract Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language which contrasts a rich set of coronal stops at dental and retroflex places of articulation across three laryngeal configurations. Moreover, all these stops occur contrastively in various positions (word-initially, -medially, and -finally). The goal of this study is to investigate how various coronal place and laryngeal contrasts are distinguished acoustically both within and across word positions. A number of temporal and spectral correlates were examined in data from 13 speakers of Eastern Punjabi: Voice Onset Time, release and closure durations, fundamental frequency, F1-F3 formants, spectral center of gravity and standard deviation, H1*-H2*, and cepstral peak prominence. The findings indicated that higher formants and spectral measures were most important for the classification of place contrasts across word positions, whereas laryngeal contrasts were reliably distinguished by durational and voice quality measures. Word-medially and -finally, F2 and F3 of the preceding vowels played a key role in distinguishing the dental and retroflex stops, while spectral noise measures were more important word-initially. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of factors involved in the maintenance of typologically rare and phonetically complex sets of place and laryngeal contrasts in the coronal stops of Indo-Aryan languages.

The perceptual acquisition of Thai phonology by English speakers: task and stimulus effects

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Pater
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Stimulus Effects ◽  
Parallel Effect ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This article presents a follow-up to Curtin et al.’s study of the perceptual acquisition of Thai laryngeal contrasts by native speakers of English, which found that subjects performed better on contrasts in voice than aspiration. This finding - surprising in light of earlier cross-linguistic voice onset time (VOT) research - was attributed to the fact that the task tapped lexical representations, which are unspecified for aspiration according to standard assumptions in generative phonology. The present study further investigated possible task effects by examining the discrimination and categorization of the same stimuli in various experimental conditions. Stimulus effects were also investigated by performing token-based analyses of the results, and by comparing them to acoustic properties of the tokens. The outcome of the discrimination experiment was the opposite of the earlier study, with significantly better performance on contrasts in aspiration than voice, even on a lexical task. A second finding of this experiment is that place of articulation interacts with the perception of the laryngeal distinctions; the aspiration distinction is discriminated better on the labials, and voice on alveolars. A parallel effect of place of articulation was also found in a categorization experiment.

Phonetics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Golnaz Modarresi Ghavami
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Suprasegmental Features ◽  
Sibilant Fricatives ◽  
Manner Of Articulation

This chapter discusses the articulatory and acoustic properties of the sound system of Standard Modern Persian. It starts with a brief review of early work on the sound system of New Persian and its development into Modern Persian. The second section examines consonants and vowels in Standard Modern Persian. In this section, issues such as place and manner of articulation of consonants, Voice Onset Time and its importance in distinguishing voiced and voiceless obstruents, the acoustics of glottal consonants, sibilant and non-sibilant fricatives, and rhotics are discussed. The section on vowels addresses vowel space, vowel length, and the acoustics of diphthongs in Standard Modern Persian. The phonetics of the suprasegmental features of stress and intonation are the topic a final section in this chapter.

Variation in Voice Onset Time for Korean Stops

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Silva
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
The United States ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Phonemic Level ◽  
The Voice

Abstract. Acoustic data elicited from 34 native speakers of Korean living in the United States pro-vide evidence for diachronic change in the voice onset time (VOT) of phrase-initial aspirated and lax stop phonemes. While older speakers produce aspirated and lax stops with clearly differentiated average VOT values, many younger speakers appear to have neutralized this difference, producing VOTs for aspirated stops that are substantially shorter than those of older speakers, and comparable to those for corresponding lax stops. The data further indicate that, within each age group, older speakers manifest sex-based differences in VOT while younger speakers do not. Despite this appar-ent shift in VOT values, the acoustic evidence suggests that all speakers in this study, regardless of age, continue to mark underlying differences between aspirated and lax stops in terms of stop closure and the fundamental frequency of the following vowel. It is concluded that the data point to a recent phonetic shift in the language, whereby VOT no longer serves as the primary cue to differentiate between lax and aspirated stops. There is not, however, evidence of any reorganization of the lan-guage as the phonemic level: the language's underlying lax ~ aspirated ~ tense contrasts endure.

scholarly journals Comparison of plosive sounds in monolingual and bilingual children, using the voice onset time acoustic parameter: cases report

Revista CEFAC ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 680-687
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa R. Lofredo-Bonatto ◽  
Marta A. Andrada e Silva
Keyword(s):  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Acoustic Signals ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Acoustic Parameter ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
The Voice

ABSTRACT The purpose was to compare differences in production of plosive phonemes through the voice onset time (VOT) measurement in the speech of monolingual children, speakers of Brazilian Portuguese and bilingual children, speakers of both Brazilian Portuguese and English. The sample consisted of three monolingual children and three bilingual children; average age was 7 years. A speech emission was recorded for the investigation, which had the following vehicle phrase: “Diga ‘papa’ baixinho” (“Say ‘papa’ quietly”). Papa was then replaced by “baba”, “tata”, “dada”, “caca” and “gaga”. The measurements of the acoustic signals were performed through broadband spectrograms, and VOT was descriptively analyzed for the non-voiced sounds [p, t, k] and voiced [b, d, g] plosive sounds. Monolingual children presented higher average VOT values for [p, t, k] compared to bilingual children. For the [b, d, g] sounds, monolingual children had lower average VOT values, as compared to bilingual children. It was concluded that in the comparison of VOT measures of the speech samples, the monolingual children of Brazilian Portuguese presented higher values for the non voiced ones and lower for the voiced ones in relation to the bilingual children speakers of Brazilian Portuguese and English.

Gambling-Induced Analgesia: A Single Case Report

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Blaszczynski ◽  
Fiona Maccallum
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Back Pain ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Single Case Report ◽  
Conditioning Model ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Analgesic Medication ◽  
Negative Reinforcer ◽  
The Subject

This paper describes a single case study of analgesia induced by gambling. The subject is a 48-year-old male diagnosed with pathological gambling problems, suffering chronic back pain resulting from a road trauma. The reported intensity of arousal associated with slot machines and roulette produced a state of dissociation or distraction that temporarily reduced levels of pain. Consistent with an operant conditioning model, this reduction in pain was a negative reinforcer that acted to elicit further gambling whenever the pain reached a certain level of discomfort. In the absence of any effective analgesic medication, he used gambling as his predominant strategy to manage pain. He began to enjoy gambling, and within a relatively short period, lost more than he intended and commenced chasing losses. Pain levels decreased following chiropractic interventions, but his gambling continued. The additional, positive reinforcing effects of the excitement generated by the slot machines and roulette gaming became sufficient to maintain persistence in gambling independent of pain experienced. This case highlights the possibility that psychological factors involved in establishing a gambling habit may differ from those involved in maintaining persistence.

Speakers' Sex Differences in Voice Onset Time: Some Preliminary Findings

1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-463E ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra P. Whiteside ◽  
Caroline J. Irving
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
The Voice

This study presents a brief investigation into sex differences of speakers in the voice onset time of English plosives that are stressed in both word-initial and prevocalic position. 72 short phrases were presented to 5 men (range 25 to 37 years, mean age 34.2 yr.) and five women speakers (range 28 to 38 years, mean 32.6 yr.). Analysis showed that the women as speakers had on average, longer voice onset time values than their male peers.

Speakers' Sex Differences in Voice Onset Time: A Study of Isolated Word Production

1998 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 651-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Whiteside ◽  
C. J. Irving
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Isolated Word ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Voice

This report presents a brief study into sex differences of speakers in the voice onset time of English plosives that are stressed in both word-initial and pre-vocalic positions. 36 isolated words were spoken by 5 men (age range 25 to 37 yr., M: 34.2 yr.) and 5 women speakers (age range 28 to 38 yr., M: 32.6 yr.) who were subjects. Analysis showed that the women speakers had on the average relative to the men, longer voice onset time values for voiceless plosives and shorter voice onset time values for the voiced plosives.

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