Acoustic Characteristics of Nasal Consonants and the Change of Nasalance according to the Sites of Nasal Obstruction

비폐색 부위에 따른 비강자음의 음향학적 특성 및 비음도의 변화

Nasal sounds include nasalized vowels and consonants. Nasal cavity is important for the acoustics of nasal sounds. Evaluating the effects of site-specific nasal obstruction on nasal sound will help us to understand the importance of nasal geometry for the nasal sound and to foretell voice change after nasal surgery This study was designed to analyze the change of nasality and formant characteristics of nasal sound by obstructing different sites around the ostiomeatal unit(OMU). Ten adult male and female volunteers participated. The nasal formants and bandwidths of nasal consonant /n/ were checked in various conditions of nasal obstruction. The nasalance of rabbit, baby, and mama passages were compared in each conditions. Nasalance of all passages decreased when anterior portion of OMU was obstructed. Center frequency of first nasal formant(NF1) of /n/ has decreased in the order of anterior, inferior obstruction. The bandwidth of NF1 decreased in female with anterior obstruction. Anterior portion of OMU is most critical to the change of nasality and acoustics of nasal consonant. When anterior portion of OMU is obstructed, the shift of NF1 to a lower frequency and the narrowing of NF1 bandwidth are the major acoustic changes of nasal consonant /n/.