70 Chapter 4
Velopharyngeal Functioning
Although all sounds produced by the speech mechanism have a degree of nasal resonance,
in En glish three sounds are considered nasals: /m/, /n/, and “ng” (as in thong). They result from
opening the velopharyngeal port and allowing air and the acoustic energy generated from the lar-
ynx to pass through the nasal chambers. With the port opened, the lips occlude the airstream in
the production of the /m/ phoneme and the /n/ sound by the tip of the tongue approximating the
alveolar ridge. The “ng” nasal is produced by opening the velopharyngeal port and the airstream
occlusion by the back of the tongue approximating the velum (soft palate). The velum operates in
binary mode, whereby the nerves and muscles function to either open or close the velopharyngeal
port. In addition, in many speakers, the back of the pharynx contracts to create a bulge or pad to
aid velopharyngeal closure. Some speakers have a distinct nasal quality to their speech and sing-
ing. This is normal and is simply a result of their unique velopharyngeal functioning and head and
neck resonance characteristics.
Voice Quality
Speech is a stream of acoustic energy, and because it is intangible, descriptions of its quality
vary greatly. The public uses a variety of terms to describe voice quality. A person’s voice may be
described as tinny, throaty, sexy, metallic, hard, husky, and so forth. Many of these terms are ill
defined and have little clinical use. Clinically, eight terms are used to describe the voice: hyperna-
sality, hyponasality, harsh, breathy, hoarse, hard glottal attack, strangled, and vocal fry.
Hypernasality and hyponasality are resonance characteristics caused by abnormalities of the
velopharyngeal port and nasal passageways. Hypernasality is too much nasality on non- nasal
sounds. It occurs when the velopharyngeal port is open too long in connected speech or when
there is a hole in the palates. It also occurs when the velum is too short or too small to approximate
the posterior pharyngeal wall. Hyponasality, also called denasality, occurs when there is too little
nasality on nasal sounds and the person appears to have an occluded nasal passageway.
A harsh voice quality occurs when the vocal cords close with too much force. Breathiness
occurs for the opposite reason or when the period of closure is very brief. The hoarse voice is a
result of uneven closure of the glottis; perceptually, it is a combination of harsh and breathy quali-
ties. Some persons with a hoarse voice quality have mainly a breathy component, whereas others
have more harshness.