Perseveratory coarticulation in the speech of profoundly hearing-impaired and normally hearing children

This study investigated the extent of perseveratory coarticulation in the VC syllables [i integral of, u integral of, it, ut, ik, uk] as produced by 7- and 10-year-old normally hearing and profoundly hearing-impaired children. Measures of both temporal and spectral (centroid and F2 frequency) parameters were computed. The data revealed that the hearing-impaired speakers exhibited measurable but smaller effects of perseveratory coarticulation relative to the normally hearing speakers. These results are compared with studies of anticipatory coarticulation and are discussed in relation to the claim that perseveratory coarticulation is largely a result of the inertial properties of the speech production mechanism.