The Production of Intervocalic Glides in Non Dysarthric Parkinsonian Speech

In the context of a research project aiming at investigating the relationships between speech disorders, quality of life and social participation in Parkinson's Disease (PD), we report here on an acoustic study of glides and steady vowels by non dysarthric parkinsonian and control speakers. Our specific aim is to explore the dynamics of supra-laryngeal articulators in PD. Results suggest that non dysarthric Parkinsonian speakers maintain an accurate production of glides in VC[glide]V pseudo-words at the expense of articulatory undershoot in the surrounding vowels, and some asymmetry between the V1-toglide and glide-to-V2 articulatory movements. We discuss how these results both support and challenge the accuracytempo trade-off hypothesis (Ackermann and Ziegler, 1991).