Some Aerodynamic Characteristics of Plosive Consonants Produced by Hearing-Impaired Speakers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the rate of oral air flow for plosive consonants produced by 10 normal hearing adult males, 10 hearing-impaired adult males who demonstrated intelligible speech, and 10 hearing-impaired adult males with semi-intelligible speech. The peak rate of oral air flow was measured during production of CV and VCV syllables consisting of the vowels /a/ and /i/ and the consonants /b/, /p/, /d/, and /t/. In general, the results indicated that a significant voiced/voiceless distinction, for rate of air flow, occurred for the normally hearing and intelligible hearing-impaired subjects but not for the semi-intelligible subjects. In addition, the semi-intelligible hearing impaired, in the CV context, produced voiced plosives with significantly greater air flow and voiceless plosives with significantly less air flow; and, produced both voiced and voiceless plosives, in the VCV context, with significantly less air flow, when compared with the normally hearing and intelligible hearing-impaired speakers.