Peak Intraoral Air Pressures During Speech

Peak intraoral air pressures were recorded during speech acts of ten children and ten adults by use of a polyethylene tube positioned in the oral-pharyngeal cavity. These pressures were measured during selected consonants spoken under a variety of conditions. Air pressures for voiceless consonants were found to be significantly higher than for voiced consonants, and higher peak intraoral air pressures were associated with stop consonants than with continuant consonants. For adults, successively higher magnitudes of peak intraoral air pressures were found at progressively higher levels of speech intensity. For the children, higher pressures were associated with consonants in the intervocalic context than in pre- and postvocalic contexts.