Journal List > J Korean Acad Prosthodont > v.48(1) > 1034646

Chung, Lim, Kim, Nam, Lee, and Kwon: The effect of palatal height on the Korean vowels

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of palatal height on Korean vowels and speech intelligibility in Korean adults and to produce baseline data for future prosthodontic treatment.

Material and methods

Forty one healthy Korean men and women who had no problem in pronunciation, hearing, and communication and had no history of airway disease participated in this study. Subjects were classified into H, M, and L groups after clinical determination of palatal height with study casts. Seven Korean vowels were used as sample vowels and subjects’ clear speech sounds were recorded using Multispeech software program on computer. The F1 and the F2 of 3 groups were produced and they were compared. In addition, the vowel working spaces of 3 groups by /a/, /i/, and /u/ corner vowels were obtained and their areas were compared. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whiteny U test were used as statistical methods and P < .05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

There were no significant differences in formant frequencies among 3 groups except for the F2 formant frequency between H and L group (P = .003). In the analysis of vowel working space areas of 3 groups, the vowel working spaces of 3 groups were similar in shape and no significant differences of their areas were found.

Conlcusion

The palatal height did not affect vowel frequencies in most of the vowels and speech intelligibility. The dynamics of tongue activity seems to compensate the morphological difference. (J Korean Acad Prosthodont 2010;48:69-74)

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Fig. 1.
Vowel working spaces of H, M, and L groups. The apices of the triangle represent the coordinates of the mean values of first two formant frequencies of the vowels /ㅏ/, /ㅣ/, and /ㅜ/ produced by the H goup (thick solid line), M group (dotted line), and L group (thin solid line).
jkap-48-69f1.tif
Table I.
Mean palatal width (mm), mean palatal depth (mm), and mean palatal rat values
Group   Palatal width Palatal depth Palatal ratio
H Mean 49.93 18.91 0.38
(n = 20) SD 2.13 1.66 0.03
M Mean 50.00 17.20 0.35
(n = 14) SD 3.13 1.78 0.04
L Mean 52.35 17.05 0.33
(n = 7) SD 2.92 1.08 0.03
Table II.
Mean F1 values (Hz) and standard deviations for the test vowels
Group   /ㅏ/ /ㅔ/ /ㅣ/ /ㅗ/ /ㅜ/ /ㅡ/ /ㅓ/
H Mean 763.57 534.07 300.68 398.92 390.51 358.50 559.56
(n = 20) SD 98.74 112.19 28.60 40.21 113.11 31.98 73.17
M Mean 814.16 537.40 325.26 413.57 384.11 389.72 723.20
(n = 14) SD 164.20 82.73 64.88 78.55 138.34 84.74 484.18
L Mean 802.69 522.54 355.83 387.91 412.37 362.99 602.58
(n = 7) SD 62.01 45.81 114.30 48.93 78.32 57.79 78.44

F1, first formant frequency

Table III.
Mean F2 values (Hz) and standard deviations for the test vowels
Group   /ㅏ/ /ㅔ/ /ㅣ/ /ㅗ/ /ㅜ/ /ㅡ/ /ㅓ/
H Mean 1,446.63 1,957.71 2,234.36 864.67 1,096.72 1,437.83 1,123.80
(n = 20) SD 198.31 173.6 137.45 254.77 391.94 184.72 320.66
M Mean 1,526.60 2,059.55 2,361.30 812.21 976.98 1,504.51 1,171.32
(n = 14) SD 385.74 236.16 350.29 166.08 374.13 220.1 661.51
L Mean 1,425.80 2,188.28 2,484.30 757.48 1,000.64 1,494.61 999.05
(n = 7) SD 216.32 217.87 232.03 33.59 144.86 273.27 82.25

F2, second formant frequency

Table IV.
P values among H, M and L groups
Vowels /ㅏ/ /ㅔ/ /ㅣ/ /ㅗ/ /ㅜ/ /ㅡ/ /ㅓ/
P value F1 0.223 F2 0.969 F1 0.704 F2 0.053 F1 0.287 F2 0.044 F1 0.78 F2 0.217 F1 0.54 F2 0.275 F1 0.643 F2 0.76 F1 0.195 F2 0.551

Significant difference

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