Relation between nasal/voice accelerometric values and interval estimates of hypernasality

Nasal/throat accelerometric ratios were obtained from 12 hypernasal and three normal children. The accelerometric voltages comprising the ratio were analogs of nasal and anterior-neck tissue vibrations. Audio recordings, which were obtained simultaneously with the accelerometric voltages, were later judged for hypernasality using an equal-appearing-interval (EAI) scale. High correlations were evident between accelerometric and EAI values when a stimulus sentence contained obstruents, semivowels, and vowels. No correlation existed between accelerometric measures and hypernasality judgments when a sentence contained primarily nasal phonemes and vowels.