An Accelerometric Measure as a Physical Correlate of Perceived Hypernasality in Speech

Abstract

This study investigated the correlation between a physical measure of oral-nasal coupling and perceived hypernasality in speech. A modified accelerometric method was utilized to extract distributional characteristics of a ratio of the nasal accelerometric amplitude to the voice amplitude during simulated hypernasal reading by 11 female talkers. Perceived hypernasality scores for the readings were derived from a panel of 30 listeners in a paired-comparison paradigm. A correlation coefficient of .92 was obtained between the mean nasal-to-voice ratio and the perceived hypernasality scores. The results indicated that the nasal-to-voice amplitude ratio is a promising index of perceived hypernasality in speech.