Australian adults' production of /n/: An EPG investigation

Abstract

Images of tongue/palate contact for the nasal phoneme /n/ were created using the electropalatograph (EPG). Seven typical Australian adults with no history of hearing or communication difficulty produced syllables containing /n/ paired with five vowels. The majority of productions were symmetrical had contact with the alveolar ridge, and lateral bracing along the sides of the palate; however, there were notable exceptions. There was a wide range of inter‐ and intra‐participant variation in the visual representations of the maximum point of contact as well as in measures of total palate contact (TPC) and centre of gravity (COG). It is suggested that when describing acceptable production of /n/ a range of tongue/palate contact patterns are provided.

• Nasal
• alveolar
• typical
• adult
• speech
• electropalatography (EPG)