Identifier

etd-04142004-152417

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

It was the purpose of this study to obtain nasalance values using the Nasometer and a resonance evaluation created at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Speech and Hearing Clinic. The Nasometer was used to measure the amount of nasal acoustic energy in the speech of 40 normal young adults during sustained vowel production, consonant vowel reduplications, and connected speech using the Rainbow Passage. Means and standard deviations are presented for the individual speech tasks and according to gender. Nasalance values for the sustained vowels were significantly higher for the high front vowel /i/ than any other vowel, and the lowest nasalance value was obtained by the high back vowel /u/. The vowels in order of highest to lowest nasalance values were as follows: /i, ae, a, u/. No significant gender differences were found for sustained vowel production or the Rainbow Passage. Correlation values indicated that three phonemes /u, k, g/ from the resonance protocol were the best predictors of nasalance for the reading passage. The results are discussed with regard to potential reasons why minimal gender differences were found, why the phonemes were found to be the best predictors of nasalance, and how the LSU protocol can be modified to provide a more effective and efficient resonance evaluation.

Date

2004

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Paul R. Hoffman

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.742

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