Study of Nasalance for Normal Korean Adults using Nasometer II

비음측정기를 사용한 정상 성인의 비음도에 관한 연구

Assessment of speech nasality provides important information for the treatment of velopharyngeal incompetence. Objective procedures may be used to assess velopharyngea1 function, in examples Nasometer, Aerodynamics, x-ray, Electromyography, Nasoendoscopy and Videofluoroscopy etc. The aim of this study was to obtain comprehensive nasalance data for Korean adults, aged 20 years and to investigate any gender differences within that age group using Nasometer II. The results were as follow: (1) The nasalance of the vowels(/a/, /i/, /e/, /o/, /u/, /ja/, /je/, /wi/) in the group of adults was higher in females than in males (p<0.05). (2) The nasalance of the plosives (/p/, /$p^h$/, /p'/, /t/, /$t^h$/, /t'/, /k/, /$k^h$/, /k'/) in the group of adults was higher in females than in males (p<0.05). (3) The nasalance of the affricatives (/c/, /$c^h$/, /c'/) in the group of adults was higher in females than in males (p<0.05). (4) The nasalance of the fricatives (/s/, /s'/, /$\int$/) in the group of adults was higher in female than in males (p<0.05). (5) There was no statistically significant effect for the nasalance of nasal consonants (/m/, /n/, /$a{\eta}$/).