Articulatory characteristics of fluent esophageal speakers for selected english consonants

Linguapalatal contact characteristics and lip and mandible coordination of three fluent alaryngeal esophageal speakers were examined during the production of English consonants /p, t, k, s, b, d, g, z/ in CVC syllables (V = /ae/) embedded in a sentence “_____ is a word.” Pseudopalates with 96 electrodes were fabricated for each subject. Small light reflecting beads were placed on the lips and on cantilevers attached to mandibular and maxillary teeth to determine lip and mandible movements. Information on linguapalatal contact, lip and mandible positions, and voice spectrum were collected every 10 msec with the PAGIS instrumental system. Linguapalatal contact patterns were analyzed with reference to those of normal speakers in terms of place and duration of contact. The contact patterns were related to lip and mandible positions for the criterion CVC syllables. The results will be discussed with respect to known functions of speech physiology. [Supported by NIH grant NS‐11852‐02 and by NIH grant RR‐5349 awa...