Plosive and fricative phonemes in the speech of individuals with cleft lip and palate

Abstract

The analysis of the speech in individuals with operated cleft lip and palate, aiming at a case study of the speech disorders of those subjects, is the object of this investigation. The sample used constituted itself of the speech of four individuals from the Florianopolis municipality, and to develop the analysis it was chosen the fricative and the plosive phonemes. The present work tries to contribute to the description of the alterations related to the speech and find relations with the different kinds of clefts and alterations of articulation points and manners. The results point out that the individuals with operated cleft lip and palate develop compensatory articulations for the production of the phonemes that were analyzed. When attempting to produce the language phonemes, the individuals who were analyzed presented compensatory articulating disturbs, alterations related to tooth-occlusive factors and alterations connected to the velopharyngeal region. In all the phonemes, it was possible to verify the following characteristics: hearable nose emission; weak intra-oral pressure and mild articulating contact. In order to produce the phonemes /s/ and /v/, the individuals made use of a different articulation point if compared with the regular speakers of a language. In the production of the plosive phonemes, they showed the production of the phonemes associated to the stroke of the glottis.

Key-words: Cleft lip palate; Auto segmental Phonology; Alterations.