Dysprosody in aphasia: An acoustic analysis evidence from Palestinian Arabic

Abstract

The present study was aimed to present an acoustic analysis of Palestinian prosody based on data obtained from four Palestinian speaking- persons with Broca’s aphasia and normal speakers. A number of acoustic measures were examined in this study including tone modulation, F0 range, phrase-final lengthening, word duration and syllable duration. The results indicated that Broca’s aphasics were unable to implement phrase-final lengthening compared to the control participants, which suggests underlying deficits in speech planning and timing. Furthermore, Broca’s aphasics showed higher F0 range compared to the control subjects. However, they demonstrated relatively spared rising and falling intonation patterns. The findings of the study are in consensus with previous studies on timing and prosodic patterns in persons with Broca’s aphasia, in which speech timing deficits and abnormal durational patterns are the significant characteristic in speech of Broca’s aphasia. The results of the study contribute to the neurolinguistic research across different languages, specifically where Palestinian Arabic is much less investigated compared to other Arabic dialects and languages.

Keywords

• Dysprosody in Broca's aphasia; Palestinian Arabic; Acoustic analysis

Hisham Adam a

Abstract

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