Caracterização dos níveis de produção da fala por análise instrumental em adultos falantes do português brasileiro

Abstract

Linguistic studies have been concerned about characterizing deviant speech, as in speech sound disorders, apraxia of speech, dysarthria, etc. However, in order to be aware of the dimension of articulatory disorders in these cases, it is essential to use evaluation methods that are intended to characterize typical speech for later comparison with atypical speech. In this way, this work aimed to characterize instrumentally the production of the typical speech assessed through nasometry and ultrasonography. The study consisted of nasometric and ultrasonographic evaluation of the speech of typical speaking adults of the city of Santa Maria / RS. We utilized the Speech Instrumental Assessment Protocol to collect the speech data from Nasometer II and Articulate Assistant Advanced software. This study investigated the nasalance scores of Brazilian Portuguese consonants, proposing new nasality ratings of the segments and enhancing the knowledge about velopharyngeal function in each segment. It was concluded that nasalance scores for nasal segments and voiced plosive oral segments are higher than non voiced and liquid segments, suggesting that an oronasal classification for voiced plosives be included. The articulatory aspect of the Brazilian Portuguese consonants was also studied in a qualitative and quantitative way, which were characterized by gestural patterns and compared statistically. The labial and bilabial segments showed a gesture of the tongue body towards the hard palate. The alveolar segments /t/, /d/ and /n/ presented a gesture of the tongue tip, whilst /s/ and /z/ presented two gestures simultaneously one with the tip of the tongue towards the alveolus and one with the body of the tongue towards the hard palate. The velar segments /k/ and /g/ presented a tongue body gesture towards the hard palate and /ɲ/, the same gesture, but towards the soft palate. The palatoalveolar segments presented three gestures: a tongue tip gesture toward the alveolus, a tongue body gesture towards the hard palate and a tongue root gesture towards the pharynx. The liquids /l/ and /r/ presented a tongue tip gesture towards the alveolus, but /r/ also presented a tongue root gesture toward the pharynx; /R/ presented a tongue root gesture and also a tongue body gesture toward the palate. Finally, /ʎ/ showed three equivalent and asynchronous tongue gestures: a first gesture of tongue tip, a second gesture of tongue, and a gesture of tongue root, which was present throughout the production of the segment. Through this work, we tried to emphasize the importance of evaluating speech with instruments that allow the clinician to identify each level of production and also to characterize nasometric and sonographic measurements in speech.