Quand nasal est plus que nasal : L’articulation orale des voyelles nasales en français // When nasal is more than nasal: Oral articulation of French nasal vowels

Cet article rend compte des résultats préliminaires de l’étude des articulations linguales et labiales des voyelles orales et nasales de trois locuteurs de français métropolitain (FM) enregistrées avec un système EMA. La variation inter-locuteur des articulations orales des voyelles est interprétée en terme d’équivalence motrice dans la dispersion acoustique des systèmes vocaliques : les locuteurs témoignent des réalisations acoustiques similaires, mais ils utilisent des stratégies articulatoires différentes pour y parvenir. // Lingual and labial articulations of oral and nasal vowels of three Metropolitan French (FM) speakers were recorded using an EMA system. Inter-speaker variation in these oral articulations suggest that the role of motor equivalence is important in the acoustic dispersion of this vowel system: the speakers have a similar acoustic output, but use different articulatory strategies to achieve this output

A comparison of nasalance values in tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis and normal laryngeal speakers.

The purpose of this study was to compare nasalance values in tracheoesophageal (TE) voice prosthesis and laryngeal speakers. Nasalance measures were obtained from 10 age-matched male TE speakers and 10 healthy male laryngeal speakers reading the Zoo Passage and Nasal Sentences. All TE speakers were rated as good to excellent in terms of speech proficiency and intelligibility. Nasalance scores were compared across groups. The findings revealed there were no significant differences in average nasalance values between the two groups. Clinical implications and future research needs are discussed

Acoustical analysis of hypernasal voice : towards a clinical prediction test

Hypernasalization of oral voice sounds results in a decrease of energy, due to nasal attenuation, and in loss of acoustical clues with the subsequent loss of intelligibility. Whereas severe and moderate hypernasality is easily perceived auditorily, mild cases are difficult to assess. Therefore, there is a need for an objective test for clinical evaluation of hypernasal voice. In this research work we identify two acoustic markers that specifically and consistently correlate with nasalization of oral vowels. Using these two markers to generate a combined acoustic index that predicts nasalization with high sensitivity and specificity, and an overall efficiency of 85%.La hipernasalitat en els sons orals es deu a una pèrdua d'energia degut a la pròpia atenuació nasal i la pèrdua de claus acústiques, amb una pèrdua d'intel·ligibilitat. Aquest fet és fàcil de mesurar en els casos severs però molt complicat en els casos moderats. Per això cal un test objectiu que permeti la seva avaluació clínica. En aquest treball s'han identificat dos marcadors acústics d'hipernasalitat que correlacionen de forma específica amb la nasalització de sons vocàlics. Utilitzant aquests dos marcadors s'aconsegueix un índex combinat que prediu la hipernasalitat amb una alta sensibilitat i especificitat, amb un rendiment de 85%

Earbuds: A Method for Analyzing Nasality in the Field

Existing methods for collecting and analyzing nasality data are problematic for linguistic fieldworkers: aerodynamic equipment can be expensive and difficult to transport, and acoustic analyses require large amounts of optimally-recorded data. In this paper, a highly mobile and low-cost method is proposed. By connecting low impedance earbuds into a microphone jack of a recording device and placing one earbud immediately below one nostril while keeping the other earbud by the mouth, it is possible to capture the relative intensity of sound exiting the nasal and oral cavities. The two channels can then be normalized to assess the relative prominence of nasality and orality in a given speech sound. This method can not only be used to establish whether nasality is present in a speech signal, but it can also provide information about the timing and duration of nasal gestures. As such, it is an ideal tool for collecting high-quality nasality data in the field.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Planting the seed for sound change: Evidence from real-time MRI of velum kinematics in German

Velum movement signals generated from real-time magnetic resonance imaging videos of thirty-five German speakers were used to investigate the physiological conditions that might promote sound change involving the development of contrastive vowel nasality. The results suggest that, in comparison to when a nasal consonant precedes a voiced obstruent, the velum gesture associated with a nasal consonant preceding a voiceless obstruent undergoes gestural rescaling and temporal rephasing. This further suggests that the diachronic development of contrastive vowel nasality comprises two stages: the first stage involves gestural shortening and realignment, while the second stage involves a trading relationship between source and effect