6 Diagnosing Dysarthria in Adults acts as a nasal resonator for the consonants m, n,1 whereas the closure of the palate yields consonants such as b, p, k (Shprintzen & Siegel-Sadewitz 1982; Minczakiewicz 1990; Kent et al. 1992). The quality of articulation is affected by the position and condition of the articulatory organs and by the opening of the vocal channel, which is required to be opened for vowels, closed or narrowed for obstruent consonants, and partially opened for sonorant consonants (e.g. m, l). Voiceless stops (k, p) are articulated with the voice channel closed at various positions. 1.3. PROSODIC ELEMENTS This section briefly discusses phoneme length, rhythm, melody, stress, and intonation, which are all features of speech invariably affected by dysarthria. Before discussing pathological changes manifested in various dysarthria forms, a general characterization of prosodic elements will be provided, illustrated with examples from Polish, English, and Spanish. 1.3.1. Phoneme length In some languages, different durations of articulation of certain speech sounds – vowels or consonants – may contribute to differences in meaning. In contemporary Polish, phoneme is not distinctive in this sense, therefore it is not relevant perceptually, either. As far as English is concerned, vowel length and vowel combinations are of crucial importance. Despite this, for the purposes of dysarthria diagnostics, not all vowel length distinctions are diagnostically significant. We need to remember not to burden a patient excessively with diagnostic tasks; a limited number of examples is sufficient to test for pathological patterns in vowel length. For example, if a patient is found not to be able to articulate /ʊ/ and /u:/ distinctively, as in pull /pʊl/ and pool /pu:l/ (BrE), this is symptomatic enough of a problem with vowel duration. In Spanish, on the other hand, we may test for a phonemic difference in the realization of the consonant r in pairs such as, e.g. pero ‘but’ vs. perro ‘dog.’ 1 To make the text more accessible to non-linguists, in the running text alphabetic transcription is applied instead of the phonetic one, unless necessary and then specifically indicated otherwise.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE5NDY5MQ==