Acoustic and Perceptual Description of Vowels in a Speaker With Congenital Aglossia

Abstract

The goals of this study were to (a) compare the vowel space produced by a person with congenital aglossia (PWCA) with a typical vowel space; (b) investigate listeners’ intelligibility for single vowels produced by the PWCA, with and without visual information; and (c) determine whether there is a correlation between scores of speech intelligibility of PWCA speech and the acoustic properties of those speech samples. The main objective of this study was to determine whether a PWCA was able to compensate for the lack of tongue and whether listeners were able to compensate perceptually for the possible atypical acoustics of the PWCA. Cineradiography for this article was limited to observation of gross function of the tongue base and mylohyoid. An audiovisual recording of the PWCA speaker’s output was obtained for a series of isolated vowels, diphthongized vowels, and vowels in monosyllables. Production of vowels was analyzed acoustically and perceptually. Vowels were presented to listeners under two conditions: audiovisual and audio only. Paired differences sample tests revealed no statistical differences in intelligibility for the audio versus audiovisual conditions. Mean intelligibility for vowels was 78.5% overall. Intelligibility was a function of vowel position, with the front vowels revealing the least intelligibility and the back vowels revealing the greatest intelligibility. Quantitative analysis of F1–F2 formant data revealed that the speaker’s front vowels showed greater distances from the back vowels when compared with the F1–F2 means of normative data.

Speech and Swallow Kinematics of a Person with Congenital Aglossia

“…Previous reports described perceptual examination of vowel and consonant production [2,3] followed by a two dimensional CRF investigation of articulatory movement of bony variables mandible and hyoid bone and the visible muscular variables of pseudo-tongue structures (base of tongue and mylohyoid) during production of four phrases [4]. These finding suggested that the hyoid bone appeared to act independently in vertical motion and was strongly active with vertical pseudo-tongue movement during phrase production.…”

Bilabial Substitution Patterns during Consonant Production in a Case of Congenital Aglossia

“…There was no evidence of hyper-or hypo-nasality as a resonatory characteristic [14,15]. In oral-peripheral assessment, range of motion of jaw and lips demonstrated what would be considered as normal mobility.…”

“…However multiple consonant distortions were reported in this case. McMicken et al [14,15] reported an overall intelligibility from the 1986 AV tapes of PwCA I of vowels at 78.5% and initial consonants 77.3%, with considerably variability depending on context.…”

“…Only 11 cases have been reported internationally [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] since it was first described systematically by De Jussieu in 1718 [12] whose original paper was investigated and described by Salles et al in 2016 [13]. McMicken and her co-authors [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] have reported extensively on research from cinefluorographic films and audio-visual (AV) recordings collected in 1986 on a 16-year-old female PwCA. This research included perception of vowel production [14], perception of consonant production [15], and cinefluorographic examination of articulation [16], in addition to current re-examination of the PwCA, now in her 40s, with electropalatography [17], videoflourography of articulatory movements of pseudo tongue, hyoid and mandible [18], and speech and swallowing kinematics [19].…”

“…McMicken and her co-authors [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] have reported extensively on research from cinefluorographic films and audio-visual (AV) recordings collected in 1986 on a 16-year-old female PwCA. This research included perception of vowel production [14], perception of consonant production [15], and cinefluorographic examination of articulation [16], in addition to current re-examination of the PwCA, now in her 40s, with electropalatography [17], videoflourography of articulatory movements of pseudo tongue, hyoid and mandible [18], and speech and swallowing kinematics [19]. It should be noted that the PwCA was a co-author in previous articles and is currently the subject of this paper.…”