Abstract: PURPOSE: To establish the pathological speech characteristic of patients after cleft plate repair in Henan province by unusual speech frequency and vowel formants. METHODS: One hundred normal speech patients and 121 patients after cleft palate repair were selected, their formant frequency of vowels/ a,o,e,i,u,ü/ were obtained. The pathological speech frequency was collected in 121 postoperative patients. The acoustic features of the vowel were compared by SPSS17.0 software package with two independent sample t test. RESULTS: According to articulation position, 21.9% of misarticulation of postoperative patients occurred in dental consonants, 5.2% in retroflex consonants, 21.6% in alveolar consonants, 19.2% in palatal consonants, 12.9% in velar consonants and 6.6% in dorsum consonants. The average value of F2 of/a, o, e, u/did not show significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05).The difference of average value of F2 of /i,ü/ was significant (P<0.05). The average value of F1 of/a, o, e, I, u/did not show significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05).Except /a/,the average value of F3 of vowel /o, e, i, u, ü/showed significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Misarticulation of patients after cleft palate repair in Henan province mainly occurred in dental consonants, alveolar consonants and palatal consonants; tongue over curly can be observed in operated patients with cleft palate. There was no significant difference between the two groups in mouth opening.

Key words: Henan province, Cleft palate, Articulation disorder, Formant frequence of vowel, Computer speech lab