NORMATIVE VALUES OF CERTAIN PROSODIC PARA METERS OBTAINED WITH FRENCH-SPEAKING PERSONS WITHOUT A COMMUNICATION DISORDER

Acoustic data are provided in order to facilitate evaluation of the sp eech of adult patients with prosody disorders such as dysarthria. Fort y French-speaking subjects between 45 and 75 years of age, with neithe r neurological disease nor a communication disorder, were grouped on t he basis of sex and age. Subjects were required to produce four series of 20 matched interrogative and declarative sentences. Their producti ons were recorded and analyzed with an IBM Speech Viewer. Measures of fundamental frequency, of variation in fundamental frequency, of rate over the entire sentence, as well as a measure of intonation (defined as the difference in fundamental frequency be tween the last syllable of matched declarative and interrogative sentences) are reported in ta bles for clinical use. These data provide information for the evaluati on of the prosody of French-speaking persons.