COMPARISON OF TONGUE POSITION DURING SPEECH BEFORE AND AFTER PHARYNGEAL FLAP SURGERY IN HYPERNASAL SPEAKERS

Tongue position was cineradiographically analyzed during speech, befor e and after pharyngeal flap surgery, in 19 hypernasal cleft palate spe akers with acceptable articulation and in 10 noncleft reference indivi duals. The results showed that the position of the tongue was signific antly retracted during production of the consonants (/ti/, /ki/, and / ka/) In the cleft palate speakers with VPI compared to the reference i ndividuals. Following pharyngeal flap surgery, the position of the ton gue remained different in cleft palate speakers compared to reference individuals, although the articulation quality and resonance were eval uated to have normalized in almost air the speech samples produced by cleft palate speakers. It was suggested that the cleft palate speakers with VPI may exploit the plasticity of the speech system in order to achieve perceptually good speech, even though their tongue movements m ight be different from tongue movement in noncleft speakers.