Articulatory constraints on a phonological system: a case study of cleft palate speech

This paper presents a case study of a 6-year-old girl with a history of cleft palate and hearing impairment, with grossly impaired speech and an apparently severely reduced phonological system and yet paradoxically a high level of intelligibility. Her speech had been only minimally responsive to prolonged therapy. The study aimed to use phonetic and phonological analysis to establish the articulatory and/or phonological basis of her speech disorder and to explain her intelligibility and her resistance to therapy. Several methods were used to make an articulatory and phonological analysis of the patient's speech, including detailed transcription, PACS, nasometry, electropalatography, spectrography and lateral cineradiography. The analysis revealed a sound system severely disrupted by the interaction of deficits along a number of articulatory parameters, but where an intact phonological system preserved contrasts by recourse to subtle articulatory strategies. The results highlight the importance of distingu...

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