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Consonant acquisition in the Malay language: a cross-sectional study of preschool aged Malay children

Phoon HS, Abdullah AC, Lee LW, Murugaiah P

Clin Linguist Phon, 2014 May;28(5):329-45.
PMID: 24446796 DOI: 10.3109/02699206.2013.868517

To date, there has been little research done on phonological acquisition in the Malay language of typically developing Malay-speaking children. This study serves to fill this gap by providing a systematic description of Malay consonant acquisition in a large cohort of preschool-aged children between 4- and 6-years-old. In the study, 326 Malay-dominant speaking children were assessed using a picture naming task that elicited 53 single words containing all the primary consonants in Malay. Two main analyses were conducted to study their consonant acquisition: (1) age of customary and mastery production of consonants; and (2) consonant accuracy. Results revealed that Malay children acquired all the syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants before 4;06-years-old, with the exception of syllable-final /s/, /h/ and /l/ which were acquired after 5;06-years-old. The development of Malay consonants increased gradually from 4- to 6 years old, with female children performing better than male children. The accuracy of consonants based on manner of articulation showed that glides, affricates, nasals, and stops were higher than fricatives and liquids. In general, syllable-initial consonants were more accurate than syllable-final consonants while consonants in monosyllabic and disyllabic words were more accurate than polysyllabic words. These findings will provide significant information for speech-language pathologists for assessing Malay-speaking children and designing treatment objectives that reflect the course of phonological development in Malay.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech*; Speech Production Measurement/methods*; Speech Production Measurement/standards
Perceptual processing of Mandarin nasals by L1 and L2 Mandarin speakers

Lai YH

J Psycholinguist Res, 2012 Aug;41(4):237-52.
PMID: 22089521 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-011-9190-2

Nasals are cross-linguistically susceptible to change, especially in the syllable final position. Acoustic reports on Mandarin nasal production have recently shown that the syllable-final distinction is frequently dropped. Few studies, however, have addressed the issue of perceptual processing in Mandarin nasals for L1 and L2 speakers of Mandarin Chinese. The current paper addressed to what extent and in what directions L1 and L2 speakers of Mandarin differed in perceiving Mandarin nasals. Possible variables, including the linguistic backgrounds (i.e. L1 vs. L2 speakers of Mandarin Chinese), the vocalic contexts (i.e. [i, ə, a, y, ua, uə, ia]) and the phonetic settings (i.e. syllable-initial vs. syllable-final), were discussed. Asymmetrical findings in the current investigation indicated limitations of speech learning theories developed from European languages in the context of Mandarin nasals. A tri-dimensional model was thus suggested for interpreting the cognitive mechanism in Mandarin nasal perception.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech*; Speech Acoustics; Speech Perception/physiology*
Fulltext Reference-Free Assessment of Speech Intelligibility Using Bispectrum of an Auditory Neurogram

Hossain ME, Jassim WA, Zilany MS

PLoS One, 2016;11(3):e0150415.
PMID: 26967160 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150415

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs due to damage to the inner and outer hair cells of the peripheral auditory system. Hearing loss can cause decreases in audibility, dynamic range, frequency and temporal resolution of the auditory system, and all of these effects are known to affect speech intelligibility. In this study, a new reference-free speech intelligibility metric is proposed using 2-D neurograms constructed from the output of a computational model of the auditory periphery. The responses of the auditory-nerve fibers with a wide range of characteristic frequencies were simulated to construct neurograms. The features of the neurograms were extracted using third-order statistics referred to as bispectrum. The phase coupling of neurogram bispectrum provides a unique insight for the presence (or deficit) of supra-threshold nonlinearities beyond audibility for listeners with normal hearing (or hearing loss). The speech intelligibility scores predicted by the proposed method were compared to the behavioral scores for listeners with normal hearing and hearing loss both in quiet and under noisy background conditions. The results were also compared to the performance of some existing methods. The predicted results showed a good fit with a small error suggesting that the subjective scores can be estimated reliably using the proposed neural-response-based metric. The proposed metric also had a wide dynamic range, and the predicted scores were well-separated as a function of hearing loss. The proposed metric successfully captures the effects of hearing loss and supra-threshold nonlinearities on speech intelligibility. This metric could be applied to evaluate the performance of various speech-processing algorithms designed for hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Matched MeSH terms: Audiometry, Speech/methods*; Speech Intelligibility*; Speech Perception
The effect of non-native and non-regional speech testing on a multi-lingual population

Quar TK, Soli SD, Chan YF, Ishak WS, Abdul Wahat NH

Int J Audiol, 2017 02;56(2):92-98.
PMID: 27686009 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2016.1210828

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the speech perception of Malaysian Chinese adults using the Taiwanese Mandarin HINT (MHINT-T) and the Malay HINT (MyHINT).
DESIGN: The MHINT-T and the MyHINT were presented in quiet and noise (front, right and left) conditions under headphones. Results for the two tests were compared with each other and with the norms for each test.
STUDY SAMPLE: Malaysian Chinese native speakers of Mandarin (N = 58), 18-31 years of age with normal hearing.
RESULTS: On average, subjects demonstrated poorer speech perception ability than the normative samples for these tests. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were slightly poorer on the MHINT-T than on the MyHINT for all test conditions. However, normalized SRTs were poorer by 0.6 standard deviations for MyHINT as compared with MHINT-T.
CONCLUSIONS: MyHINT and MHINT-T can be used as norm-referenced speech perception measures for Mandarin-speaking Chinese in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Audiometry, Speech/methods*; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception*
Fulltext Severity-based adaptation with limited data for ASR to aid dysarthric speakers

Mustafa MB, Salim SS, Mohamed N, Al-Qatab B, Siong CE

PLoS One, 2014;9(1):e86285.
PMID: 24466004 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086285

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is currently used in many assistive technologies, such as helping individuals with speech impairment in their communication ability. One challenge in ASR for speech-impaired individuals is the difficulty in obtaining a good speech database of impaired speakers for building an effective speech acoustic model. Because there are very few existing databases of impaired speech, which are also limited in size, the obvious solution to build a speech acoustic model of impaired speech is by employing adaptation techniques. However, issues that have not been addressed in existing studies in the area of adaptation for speech impairment are as follows: (1) identifying the most effective adaptation technique for impaired speech; and (2) the use of suitable source models to build an effective impaired-speech acoustic model. This research investigates the above-mentioned two issues on dysarthria, a type of speech impairment affecting millions of people. We applied both unimpaired and impaired speech as the source model with well-known adaptation techniques like the maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR) and the constrained-MLLR(C-MLLR). The recognition accuracy of each impaired speech acoustic model is measured in terms of word error rate (WER), with further assessments, including phoneme insertion, substitution and deletion rates. Unimpaired speech when combined with limited high-quality speech-impaired data improves performance of ASR systems in recognising severely impaired dysarthric speech. The C-MLLR adaptation technique was also found to be better than MLLR in recognising mildly and moderately impaired speech based on the statistical analysis of the WER. It was found that phoneme substitution was the biggest contributing factor in WER in dysarthric speech for all levels of severity. The results show that the speech acoustic models derived from suitable adaptation techniques improve the performance of ASR systems in recognising impaired speech with limited adaptation data.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Acoustics; Speech Recognition Software*
Fulltext Auditory Performance in Early Implanted Children with Cochleovestibular Malformation and Cochlear Nerve Deficiency

Othman IA, Abdullah A, See GB, Umat C, Tyler RS

J Int Adv Otol, 2020 Dec;16(3):297-302.
PMID: 33136006 DOI: 10.5152/iao.2020.8563

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to report the auditory performance in children with cochleovestibular malformation (CVM)/cochlear nerve deficiency (CND) who were implanted early at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, using Categorical Auditory Performance (CAP)-II score and Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) scales, and to compare the outcome of their matched counterparts.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 14 children with CVM/CND with unilateral cochlear implant (CI) implanted before the age of 4 years old were matched and compared with 14 children with normal inner ear structures. Their improvement in auditory performance was evaluated twice using CAP-II score and SIR scales at 6-month intervals, with the baseline evaluation done at least 6 months after implantation.
RESULTS: The average age of implantation was 31±8 and 33±7 months for the control group and the case (CVM/CND) group, respectively. Overall, there were no significant differences in outcome when comparing the entire cohort of case subjects and their matched control subjects in this study. However, the improvement in CAP-II scores and SIR scales among the case subjects in between the first and second evaluations was statistically significant (p=0.040 and p=0.034, respectively). With longer duration of CI usage, children with CVM/CND showed significant speech perception outcome evident by their SIR scales (p=0.011).
CONCLUSION: Children with radiographically malformed inner ear structures who were implanted before the age of 4 years have comparable performance to their matched counterparts, evident by their similar improvement of CAP-II scores and SIR scales over time. Hence, this group of children benefited from cochlear implantation.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception*
Exploring attitudes about evidence-based practice among speech-language pathologists: A survey of Japan and Malaysia

Chu SY, Hara Y, Wong CH, Higashikawa M, McConnell GE, Lim A

Int J Speech Lang Pathol, 2021 12;23(6):662-671.
PMID: 33823717 DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2021.1877816

Purpose: To investigate speech-language pathologists' current perceptions, previous training experiences, resources, barriers, and training needs in terms of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in two Asian countries.Method: Their knowledge and attitudes about EBP were explored using an online questionnaire. A descriptive analysis was conducted with consideration of the effect of demographic variables on knowledge and attitudes about EBP.Result: Malaysian speech-language pathologists (n = 98) displayed more positive attitudes toward EBPs, with a significantly higher (t (143) = 5.91, p < .01) total mean score (Mean = 120.7, SD = 11) compared to the Japanese speech-language pathologists (n = 47, Mean = 107.8, SD = 13.5). Malaysian practitioners who were female, worked full-time, and worked in government settings reported higher motivation to develop EBP skills. Japanese practitioners who worked in private sectors reported higher EBPs training needs than those in government settings. In both countries, speech-language pathologists with higher education levels tended to express fewer perceived barriers towards EBP.Conclusion: Findings could help local governance and speech-language pathologist associations to understand the current practices and professional development needs of speech-language pathologists, leading to more effective training programs and educating employers and managers who can reinforce EBP among practitioners.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech; Speech-Language Pathology*
Neurological Examination Techniques of Speech in Bahasa Malaysia for Adults: Simple Approach Practiced in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

Noorsham AH, Abdullah MM, Abdul Halim S, Ghani ARI, Idris Z, Abdullah JM

Malays J Med Sci, 2020 Dec;27(6):148-182.
PMID: 33447142 DOI: 10.21315/mjms2020.27.6.14

There are four classification levels for speech disorders namely dysphonia, dysarthria, dysprosody and dysphasia. In general, speech examination mainly focuses on three main components that are spontaneous speech, auditory comprehension, and oral motor examination. Quick bedside assessment on speech in Bahasa Malaysia is essential to assist the speech language therapist (SLT) and other physicians to determine the disorders. Speech therapy is also essential in monitoring and continuous assessment for patients with speech and language disorders such as dysphasia and dysarthria. Speech clinicians in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) have been adapting two most widely used batteries of speech assessment tools namely Western aphasia battery-revised (WAB-R) by Andrew Kertesz and Boston diagnostic aphasia examination (BDAE). These tools have been modified into simple and validated speech assessments in Bahasa Malaysia. This video manuscript will demonstrate the use of both tools in performing bedside speech assessment for patients with speech disorders. The Bahasa Malaysia speech examination should not be difficult when WAB-R and BDAE speech assessment tools are applied. The aim of this simple approach using the adapted version of BDAE and WAB-R is to assist the clinician to achieve quick and accurate diagnosis with a validated scoring system.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech; Speech Disorders; Speech Therapy
Acoustic characteristics of vowels by normal Malaysian Malay young adults

Ting HN, Chia SY, Abdul Hamid B, Mukari SZ

J Voice, 2011 Nov;25(6):e305-9.
PMID: 21429707 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2010.05.007

The acoustic characteristics of sustained vowel have been widely investigated across various languages and ethnic groups. These acoustic measures, including fundamental frequency (F(0)), jitter (Jitt), relative average perturbation (RAP), five-point period perturbation quotient (PPQ5), shimmer (Shim), and 11-point amplitude perturbation quotient (APQ11) are not well established for Malaysian Malay young adults. This article studies the acoustic measures of Malaysian Malay adults using acoustical analysis. The study analyzed six sustained Malay vowels of 60 normal native Malaysian Malay adults with a mean of 21.19 years. The F(0) values of Malaysian Malay males and females were reported as 134.85±18.54 and 238.27±24.06Hz, respectively. Malaysian Malay females had significantly higher F(0) than that of males for all the vowels. However, no significant differences were observed between the genders for the perturbation measures in all the vowels, except RAP in /e/. No significant F(0) differences between the vowels were observed. Significant differences between the vowels were reported for all perturbation measures in Malaysian Malay males. As for Malaysian Malay females, significant differences between the vowels were reported for Shim and APQ11. Multiethnic comparisons indicate that F(0) varies between Malaysian Malay and other ethnic groups. However, the perturbation measures cannot be directly compared, where the measures vary significantly across different speech analysis softwares.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Acoustics*
Fundamental frequency and perturbation measures of sustained vowels in Malaysian Malay children between 7 and 12 years old

Ting HN, Chia SY, Manap HH, Ho AH, Tiu KY, Abdul Hamid B

J Voice, 2012 Jul;26(4):425-30.
PMID: 22243972 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2011.07.001

The study is going to investigate the fundamental frequency (F(0)) and perturbation measures of sustained vowels in 360 native Malaysian Malay children aged between 7 and 12 years using acoustical analysis.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Acoustics*
Classification of speech dysfluencies using LPC based parameterization techniques

Hariharan M, Chee LS, Ai OC, Yaacob S

J Med Syst, 2012 Jun;36(3):1821-30.
PMID: 21249515 DOI: 10.1007/s10916-010-9641-6

The goal of this paper is to discuss and compare three feature extraction methods: Linear Predictive Coefficients (LPC), Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients (LPCC) and Weighted Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients (WLPCC) for recognizing the stuttered events. Speech samples from the University College London Archive of Stuttered Speech (UCLASS) were used for our analysis. The stuttered events were identified through manual segmentation and were used for feature extraction. Two simple classifiers namely, k-nearest neighbour (kNN) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) were employed for speech dysfluencies classification. Conventional validation method was used for testing the reliability of the classifier results. The study on the effect of different frame length, percentage of overlapping, value of ã in a first order pre-emphasizer and different order p were discussed. The speech dysfluencies classification accuracy was found to be improved by applying statistical normalization before feature extraction. The experimental investigation elucidated LPC, LPCC and WLPCC features can be used for identifying the stuttered events and WLPCC features slightly outperforms LPCC features and LPC features.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech-Language Pathology/classification*
Normative nasalance scores for the Malay language

Ibrahim HM, Reilly S, Kilpatrick N

Cleft Palate Craniofac J, 2012 Sep;49(5):e61-3.
PMID: 21787239 DOI: 10.1597/11-001

To establish normative nasalance scores for a set of newly developed stimuli in Malay.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Acoustics; Speech Production Measurement
Fulltext Mandarin speech perception tests for Malaysian Chinese children

Cila Umat, Chong, Sheue Lih, Siti Zamratol-Mai Sarah Mukari

Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia, 2010;8(1):31-37.
MyJurnal

The study aimed to develop Mandarin speech perception tests for Malaysian Chinese children. Two tests were developed which were the Syllabic Pattern Perception Test (SPPT) and the Tone Perception Test (TPT). Both tests were designed for children aged between three to six years-old. A total of 80 normal hearing children aged 3 years to 6 years and 11 months from several kindergartens around Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh participated in this study. Results showed that the mean scores for the SPPT did not differ significantly across age (p > 0.05), possibly due to a ceiling effect. Although the SPPT showed relatively low test-retest and inter-rater Spearman correlation coefficients (r = 0.68 for correct syllable pattern response and r = 0.38 for correct item response), the scores were highly repeatable in both test-retest and interrater conditions. For the TPT, the mean scores of five and six year old children were significantly higher than three year old subjects while the mean score of four year old subjects was significantly poorer than the six years old. The test-retest and inter-rater reliability were high and the coefficients approximated 0.80 (p < 0.05). For both tests, gender and dialects or languages used as the second language did not have significant effect on the test scores. Content validity evidence was also collected from a group of panelists. In conclusion, SPPT and TPT are reliable and valid Mandarin speech tests to be used on Malaysian Chinese children who speak Mandarin.

31-37

Matched MeSH terms: Speech; Speech Perception
Speech and hearing services in Malaysia

Curtis NW

ASHA, 1973 Nov;15(11):645-6.
PMID: 4757313
Matched MeSH terms: Speech Therapy*
Fulltext Care to care: an innovative oral health educational method for patients with hearing and/or speech impairment

Mas Suryalis Ahmad, Fouad Hussain Al-Bayaty, Farhana Abdul Ghani

Malaysian Dental Journal, 2016;39(1):26-34.
MyJurnal

People with hearing and/or speech impairments (HSI) reported having difficulty communicating with the dental team, indicating the need for the profession to develop an effective communication strategy when dealing with these patients. This paper discusses the development of a toolkit designed to guide delivery of oral hygiene instruction, oral health education and dental consultation for patients with HSI, and how its use had resulted in an improved oral health outcome in a patient with such disabilities.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech; Speech Disorders
Long-term maintenance costs incurred by the families of pediatric cochlear implant recipients in Malaysia

Misron K, Tengku Kamalden TMI, Misron LH, Devesahayam PR, Misron SNF

Cochlear Implants Int, 2021 09;22(5):291-295.
PMID: 33794747 DOI: 10.1080/14670100.2021.1905975

INTRODUCTION: Cochlear implant (CI) requires lifelong financial commitments to ensure that the devices always operate optimally.
OBJECTIVE: We estimated the long-term maintenance costs of CI including repair of speech processors, replacement of damaged parts, and battery requirements.
RESULTS: Forty-one parents of children who received CIs in Malaysian government hospitals were enrolled. The first 2 years of CI usage were covered by warranty. The cost increased three-fold from by 4 years of CI usage and then doubled by 8 years of usage. About 75% of parents commented that the costs were burdensome.
CONCLUSION: Our findings will be useful for parents whose children receive CI and will allow medical personnel to counsel the parents about the costs.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Statistical verification on the effect of hearing loss on speech-evoked auditory brainstem response

Zakaria MN

Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol, 2017 10;101:264.
PMID: 28843698 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2017.08.016
Matched MeSH terms: Speech*
Changes in oral functions and speech when using custom-fitted mouthguards: An uncontrolled before-and-after study

Mat Zainal MK, Liew AKC, Abdullah D, Soo E, Abdul Hamid B, Ramlee RAM

Dent Traumatol, 2024 Aug;40(4):460-469.
PMID: 38459669 DOI: 10.1111/edt.12939

BACKGROUND/AIM: Mouthguards are crucial for protecting athletes against orofacial injuries, yet concerns persist regarding their potential impact on oral functions. This study aimed to investigate the effects of sports mouthguards on oral functions and speech over time.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty national rugby players received custom-fitted mouthguards. Questionnaire responses and speech recordings were collected before mouthguard use and at various intervals after using mouthguards: immediately, 1 week, 2 month, and 6 months. Spectrographic analysis was performed to measure voice onset time (VOT) for /p, b, t, d/ phonemes. Questionnaire responses were assessed with Friedman's test, while VOT changes were examined using one-way repeated measure analysis of variance.
RESULTS: Compliance with mouthguard use improved during training and competitions, with consistent wear reported during matches. Over time, speaking difficulties and lisping decreased significantly (p

Matched MeSH terms: Speech*
Fulltext Code-mixing unveiled: Enhancing the hate speech detection in Arabic dialect tweets using machine learning models

Alhazmi A, Mahmud R, Idris N, Mohamed Abo ME, Eke CI

PLoS One, 2024;19(7):e0305657.
PMID: 39018339 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305657

Technological developments over the past few decades have changed the way people communicate, with platforms like social media and blogs becoming vital channels for international conversation. Even though hate speech is vigorously suppressed on social media, it is still a concern that needs to be constantly recognized and observed. The Arabic language poses particular difficulties in the detection of hate speech, despite the considerable efforts made in this area for English-language social media content. Arabic calls for particular consideration when it comes to hate speech detection because of its many dialects and linguistic nuances. Another degree of complication is added by the widespread practice of "code-mixing," in which users merge various languages smoothly. Recognizing this research vacuum, the study aims to close it by examining how well machine learning models containing variation features can detect hate speech, especially when it comes to Arabic tweets featuring code-mixing. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess and compare the effectiveness of different features and machine learning models for hate speech detection on Arabic hate speech and code-mixing hate speech datasets. To achieve the objectives, the methodology used includes data collection, data pre-processing, feature extraction, the construction of classification models, and the evaluation of the constructed classification models. The findings from the analysis revealed that the TF-IDF feature, when employed with the SGD model, attained the highest accuracy, reaching 98.21%. Subsequently, these results were contrasted with outcomes from three existing studies, and the proposed method outperformed them, underscoring the significance of the proposed method. Consequently, our study carries practical implications and serves as a foundational exploration in the realm of automated hate speech detection in text.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech/physiology
Fulltext Development of a voice activity controlled noise canceller

Abid Noor AO, Samad SA, Hussain A

Sensors (Basel), 2012;12(5):6727-45.
PMID: 22778667 DOI: 10.3390/s120506727

In this paper, a variable threshold voice activity detector (VAD) is developed to control the operation of a two-sensor adaptive noise canceller (ANC). The VAD prohibits the reference input of the ANC from containing some strength of actual speech signal during adaptation periods. The novelty of this approach resides in using the residual output from the noise canceller to control the decisions made by the VAD. Thresholds of full-band energy and zero-crossing features are adjusted according to the residual output of the adaptive filter. Performance evaluation of the proposed approach is quoted in terms of signal to noise ratio improvements as well mean square error (MSE) convergence of the ANC. The new approach showed an improved noise cancellation performance when tested under several types of environmental noise. Furthermore, the computational power of the adaptive process is reduced since the output of the adaptive filter is efficiently calculated only during non-speech periods.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech

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