This report describes the vowel formant frequency characteristics (F1-F4 of five vowels produced in a fixed phonetic context) of 42 seven and eight year old boys and girls and the relationship of vocal tract resonances to several indices of body size. Results showed that the vowel resonances of male children were consistently lower than those of females, and that the extent of the sexual differences varied as a function of formant number and vowel category. Averaged across all measured formants of all five vowels, the overall sexual distinction was approximately 10%. The range of differences extended from 3% for F1 of /i/ to 26% for F1 of /æ/. Measures of body size were always significantly related to these children's formant frequencies (range in multiple R's −0.506 to −0.866). The origin of the sexual dimorphism in vocal tract resonance characteristics is discussed with reference to male/female differences in vocal tract size as well as certain articulatory behaviors.

To provide information about the ultimate acceptability of various types of alaryngeal speech, 37 listeners rated nine speakers with normal phonation in relation to two groups of superior alaryngeal speakers: five who used esophageal speech and four who used artificial larynges. Normal speech was rated significantly more acceptable than any form of alaryngeal speech studied. Speech produced with a Tokyo artificial larynx was rated significantly more acceptable than all other types of alaryngeal speech. Superior esophageal speech was significantly preferred over Western Electric reed and Bell electrolarynx speech. Listeners also categorized each of the 18 speakers as a normal speaker or not a normal speaker. The nine alaryngeal speakers were all classified as nonnormal, while eight of the nine normal subjects were classified as normal.

Sixty-eight cases of cortical bone sequestration in 67 equine patients were reviewed with regard to the clinical presentation, method of treatment, and outcome. All lesions were located in skeletal areas with minimal soft tissue coverage, with 53% of them in the metatarsal and metacarpal bones. At the time of admission, 60% of the patients with limb lesions were lame; the majority improved with therapy. After sequestrectomy, there was a trend for surgical wounds which could be managed by primary closure to heal more rapidly (3.8 weeks) than wounds which required second intention healing (6.4 weeks). The appearance of healed wounds, as evaluated by owners, was acceptable in 45 cases. Dissatisfaction with the appearance of the healed wounds in 22 cases suggested a need to address the issue of cosmetic results.

No abstract

This investigation was undertaken to enlarge current understanding of the acoustic properties which influence the perception of maleness and femaleness in the voices of prepubertal children. Perceptual judgments of sexual identity were obtained in response to tape recordings of whispered and normally phonated vowels, normally spoken sentences, and sentences spoken in a monotonous fashion. Seventy-three children provided recordings. The four utterance types were chosen to experimentally manipulate selected physical properties of speech thought to exert an influence on listener judgments of sexual identity. The results of this work suggest that cues stemming from differences in vocal tract dimensions and/or articulatory behaviors provided the primary cues about the sexual identity of these preadolescent children. Although laryngeal source cues could have provided relevant information about the sex of a few children, this variable was felt to play a relatively minor role in the sex recognition process. New information was uncovered about the role certain suprasegmental factors play in the identification of child sex.