This study has the aim of describing the pattern of contact between the tongue and the palate comparing a cleft lip´s speaker in producing nasal consonants phones in Portuguese with a speaker with no articulatory alterations. Through electropalatography, it is examined the nasal consonant phones [m], [n] [ɲ] at the point of maximum constriction, checking the region of articulatory constriction, through palatograms provided by the program of analysis. These data were obtained from a speaker without speech disorder and a speaker with sequel of cleft lip and palate, in order to compare. All the analyzed phones produced by the speaker with cleft showed variations in the region in which articulatory constriction occurred, in relation to the normal speaker. On the phone [m] there was contact between the tongue and the palate, even in case of a bilabial phone; on the phone [n], there was a retreat of the tongue and a constriction in the palatal region and on the phone [ɲ], the constriction occurred in a more anterior region in relation to the normal speaker, that is, with the tongue forward. Such productions were consonant perceived auditory as distorted, but there wasn't a clear characterization of the articulatory adjustments used in its production. The nasal phones can be altered in the case of cleft lip and palate and the use of appropriate technology for evaluation of speech is an important resource for this analysis.
Speech; Speech Disorders; Cleft Palate; Diagnosis
