• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.111-116
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• 2016

The Nasometer is most commonly used to assess the presence and degree of resonance problems in clinical settings and it provides nasalance scores to identify the acoustic correlates of nasality. Nasalance scores are influenced by factors related to speakers and speech stimuli. This study aims to examine the effect of vowel context and length of stimuli and age on nasalance scores. The participants were 20 adults and 45 children ranging in age from 3 to 5 years. The stimuli consisted of 12 sentences containing no nasal consonants. The stimuli in the three vowel contexts (low, high, and mixed) consisted of 4, 8, 16, and 31-syllable long sentences. Speakers were asked to repeat each stimulus after examiner. The results indicated significant effects of vowel contexts and stimulus length on nasalance scores. The nasalance scores for the high vowel contexts were significantly higher than those for the mixed and low vowel contexts. The nasalance scores for the mixed vowel contexts were significantly higher than those for the low vowel contexts. Speakers had higher nasalance scores for 4-syllable long sentences and 31-syllable long sentences than for 16-syllable long sentences. The effect of age on nasalance scores was not significant. The results of the study suggest that the vowel context and length of speech stimuli should be carefully considered when interpreting the nasalance scores.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2000

Background and Objectives : The nasalance score measured by Nasometer is a supplementary data for the perceptually rated nasality by a trained speech pathologist. The nasalance score varies with subjects. The objective of the present study was to examine whether there are differences in nasalance scores as a function of age and sex. Materials and Method : This study used 20 normal chidren aged from 3 to 8 and 40 normal adults aged from 21 to 37(male : female= 1 : 1) as subjects. The nasalance scores were analyzed in 3 different phonetic contests(nasal, /i/ vowel,/a/ vowel) and 4 different sentence lengths(1, 2, 4, 8 syllable). Results : The children had significantly higher nasalance scores in short sentences an the adults. The female subjects had significantly higher nasalance scores in nasal sentences and in short sentences than the male subjects. Conclusion : These results may indicate that sex and age differences should be considered in the interpretation of the nasalance score in nasal sentences or in short sentences.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of vowel type on the nasalance score. Twenty one male adults without VPI produced 5 types of vowels (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/) in two conditions-normal and simulated VPI condition. Nasalance scores were measured for each vowel. These data were compared between conditions and among vowel types. The results were as follow : For all vowels, nasalance scores were significantly higher in simulated VPI condition than in normal condition. The two conditions yielded different patterns in terms of the degree of nasalance across the 5 vowels. In normal condition, nasalance scores were higher in front vowels than in medial or back vowels. But in simulated VPI condition, nasalance scores were higher in high vowels than in mid or low vowels.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.123-132
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to obtain normative nasalance scores for adult subjects speaking the Korean language. Additional objectives of the study were to determine if speaker sex played a role in differences in nasalance score and there was significantly correlation of nasalance score with nasalance slope score. The subjects include 75 healthy young Korean adults with normal oral and velopharyngeal resource and function. They had no history of speech problem, were judged as having normal speech and resonance at the time of testing, and had no upper respiratory tract infections or allergies at the time of testing. The Nasometer II 6400 was used to obtain nasalance scores and nasalance slope scores for /a/, /i/, /e/, /o/, /u/, /ja/, /je/, /wi/, /p'ap'i/ and /sasi/. The data of nasalance and nasalance slope were analyzed statistically. The mean nasalance score of the female was significantly higher than that of male at /a/, /i/, /wi/, /p'ap'i/ and /sasi/(p <0.10). The mean nasalance score of /i/ was highest and that of /o/ was the lowest. In this study, we could not and the relationship of the nasalance score and the closing slope score. However, there was negative correlation between the mean nasalance score and the opening slope score at ie/ and /;ai, positive to /sasi/. These normative nasalance scores for normal young adults speaking the Korean language provide important reference information for Korean cleft palate teams. In the future study of velopharygneal activity with the Nasometer, the opening slope score will be able to be the important parameter.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.49-58
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• 2002

This study was designed to examine the effects of vocal loudness on Nasalance scores in Korean vowels. One normal adult without 'hypemasality' produced 3 types of vowels (/i/, /a/, /u/) in 3 levels of loudness (60, 70, 80dB). Nasalance scores (%) and oral & nasal energy intensity (dB) were measured through NasalView system. These data were compared among 3 levels of loudness and among 3 types of vowels. The results were as follow: For all vowels, Nasalance scores significantly reduced when vocal loudness increased. Because the increases of oral energy intensity were larger than that of nasal energy intensity. For all levels of loudness, Nasalance scores significantly differed among vowel types (/i/>/a/>/u/).

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.105-110
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• 2002

This study compared nasalance in low pressure and high pressure consonants and high and low vowels. The subjects were 8 children with cleft palate ranging from 3 years 6 months to 8 years in age. The measurement were taken in terms of the nasalance scores associated with 20 different word stimuli (high consonants+high vowels, high consonants+low vowels, low consonants+high vowels, and low consonants+low vowels) for subjects. The nasalance scores may be affected by high consonants and vowels types, low vowels and consonants types.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.167-171
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• 2000

Nasal obstruction due to nasal deformities, rhinitis, sinusitis, or nasal polyps etc. induces hyponasality, which can influence the articulation and/or phonation of patients. However few studies were done on the subjects. Therefore, this study was performed to establish the guideline that can be used in diagnosing the hyponasality. We analyzed the nasalance scores of 6 different sentences for 26 normal adults. We measured the nasalance scores before simulated nasal obstruction, after one nostril obstruction, and after both nostrils obstruction, while the subjects are reading roe nasal sentences(so-called, 'Mama' sentence, 'Mimi' sentence, and 'Nana' sentence) and three non-nasal sentences('Papa' sentence, 'Bibi' sentence, and 'Tatda' sentence). The change of nasalance score of six sentences were compared in three conditions, that is, without obstruction, with one nostril obstruction, and with both nostrils obstruction. The nasalance scores of one nostril obstruction and both nostrils obstruction were significantly lower than those of no obstruction. The mean nasalance scores of one nostril obstruction and both nostrils obstruction were lower than those of no obstruction by 10.93% and 48.88% in 'Mama' sentence, 3.72% and 5.76% in 'Papa' sentence, 12.28% nd 38.12% in 'Mimi' sentence, 7.28% and 12.96% in 'Bibi' sentence, 13.32% and 34.62% in 'Nana' sentence, 4.27% and 717% in 'Tatda' sentence, respectively. In both nostrils obstruction, the nasalance score of nasal sentences were decreased more than those of non-nasal sentences significantly. The result suggests that nasal sentences can be used as efficient stimuli in assessing the patients suspected of hyponasality. Eventhough non-nasal sentences also induced significant discrimination, the dynamic range was too small.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.129-133
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• 2007

Background and Objectives: Nasometry is an easy, noninvasive method to obtain objective data regarding the function of velopharynx. However, because articulation errors may affect the results of nasometry, the examiner should interpret the nasalance score based on appropriate speech stimuli. The purpose of this study is to examine the difference of nasalance score between glottal and oral articulations in patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). Materials and Method: Nineteen children between 3.4 and 12.1 years of age (mean age 5.7 years) with a confirmed VPl showing hypernasality and articulation errors (glottal stops) were included. Nasalance scores were obtained for two speech patterns of glottal and oral stops. In addition, the velopharyngeal functions were analyzed in four subjects using video nasopharyngoscopy. Results: The $mean{\pm}S.D$ nasalance scores of the glottal stops and oral stops were $42.54{\pm}16.26%$ and $25.47{\pm}16.51%$ respectively (p=.000). Six of 19 patients achieved normal nasalance scores when glottal stops changed to oral stops by the trial speech therapy. Video nasopharyngoscope confirmed that large velopharyngeal gaps can be decreased into tiny gaps or complete closure when compensatory articulations were corrected for some cases. Conclusion: Compensatory articulation errors must be corrected for the reliable interpretation of the nasalance scores that are obtained in children with velopharyngeal insufficiency, which would facilitate to make a better decision for further management of these patients.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to obtain normative nasalance scores for adult subjects speaking the Korean language and to determine whether significantly different scores exist for female and male speakers. Mean nasalance scores were obtained for normal speaking Korean adults while they are reading vowels, consonants, no nasal sentence, mild nasal sentence, and high nasal sentence. Thirty adults who had lived in Seoul area with normal articulation, resonance, and voice were included. Among the subjects 15 were male aged 24-38 years and 15 were female aged 19-33. Nasometer data were collected and analyzed using the Kay Nasometer 6400. Nasalance scores were evaluated to investigate the effect of gender by using statistical tests. Nasalance data showed that nasalance values varied accroding to speech stimuli, and there was no significant difference in nasalance scores between male and female speakers in most of the language samples.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.138-142
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• 2007

It was the purpose of this study to obtain nasalance values for Chinese and Korean based on Vowels. The NasalView was used to measure the amount of nasal acoustic energy in the speech of 96 normal adults from China and Korea. Means and standard deviations for the nasalance and deviation scores are presented for each of three different vowels. The Chinese speakers were found to have significantly higher nasalance scores on vowel /a/ and /u/.