Movement timing in deaf and hearing speakers: comparison of phonetically heterogeneous syllable strings.
We review evidence suggesting that deaf speakers do not move their articulators toward the following open posture throughout closure and report results from a preliminary cinefluorographic study. Two prelingually deaf and two hearing speakers produced two different strings of alternating heterogeneous monosyllables as though speaking in time with a metronome (the so-called P-center task). Events traditionally associated with vowel production appeared evenly timed throughout the productions, and, in general, the deaf speakers performed similarly to the hearing speakers. We relate the results to Fowler's (1983) interpretation of the P-center phenomenon as an indicant of continuous vowel production.
Tye-Murray
N
N
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City 52242.
Zimmermann
G N
GN
Folkins
J
J
D000328:Adult; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013062:Speech Articulation Tests; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013997:Time Factors