Comparison of tongue position during speech before and after pharyngeal flap surgery in hypernasal speakers

Tongue position was cineradiographically analyzed during speech, before and after pharyngeal flap surgery, in 19 hypernasal cleft palate speakers with acceptable articulation and in 10 noncleft reference individuals. The results showed that the position of the tongue was significantly retracted during production of the consonants (/ti/, /ki/, and /ka/) in the cleft palate speakers with VPI compared to the reference individuals. Following pharyngeal flap surgery, the position of the tongue remained different in cleft palate speakers compared to reference individuals, although the articulation quality and resonance were evaluated to have normalized in almost all the speech samples produced by cleft palate speakers. It was suggested that the cleft palate speakers with VPI may exploit the plasticity of the speech system in order to achieve perceptually good speech, even though their tongue movements might be different from tongue movement in noncleft speakers.