The Relation between Perceived Hypernasality of Cleft Palate Speech and Its Hoarseness

Formerly, we had reported that rating hypernasality of speech in cleft palate patients is affected by the presence of hoarseness, especially “rough hoarseness”. In the present study, we further investigated the effects of “breathy hoarseness”, something frequently observed in cleft palate children, on the rating of hypernasality. We also controlled the degree of breathiness by adding harmonic components to source signals. Based on a perceptual experiment we confirmed that the rating of hypernasality was also affected by breathiness, that it was highest proportionate to the degree of harmonic components in breathiness.