Abstract: PURPOSE: To study the abnormal characteristics of tongue consonants and their correlation with articulatory movement parameters in patients with tongue cancer after operation. METHODS: A total of 119 patients with tongue cancer who received surgical treatment at First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical University from March 2019 to May 2023 were selected. The patients were divided into tongue margin group(n=38), tongue body group (n=40) and tongue base group(n=41). Twenty-five monosyllabic words in Huang Zhaoming-Han Zhijuan Vocabulary List for evaluating tongue consonants were used as speech assessment tools to evaluate the errors of each tongue consonant. The articulation speech measurement and training instrument were used to extract the second formants (F2) of the /i/ and /u/ vowels of the patients by linear predictive spectrum, and the articulation movement parameters such as tongue distance and F2i/F2u were calculated according to the formula. SPSS 26.0 software package was used for data analysis. RESULTS: The rate of tongue consonant error in each group was as follows: in tongue margin group, preapical sound (49.5%)> apical middle sound (27.8%)> apical postapical sound (17.5%)>lingual facial sound (9.4%)> lingual base sound (6.1%). In tongue body group, preapical sound (55.0%)> apical middle sound (47.1%) > apical postapical sound (25.4%)>lingual facial sound (12.1%)>lingual base sound (3.3%). In tongue base group, preapical sound (60.0%)>postapical sound (52.0%) >apical medium sound (51.9%)>lingual base sound (44.3%)>lingual facial sound (34.8%). The error frequency of tongue apex medium sound in tongue body group and tongue base group was significantly higher than that in tongue margin group, and the error frequency of tongue apex posterior sound, tongue surface sound and tongue base sound in tongue base group was significantly higher than that in tongue body group and tongue margin group(P<0.05). Tongue distance and F2i/F2u in tongue base group were significantly lower than those in tongue margin group and tongue body group, and tongue distance and F2i/F2u in tongue body group were significantly lower than those in tongue margin group(P<0.05). Tongue distance, F2i/F2u were significantly negatively correlated with the error frequency of apical midpoint, apical postpoint and base sound in all groups(r<0, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Most patients with tongue cancer after operation have abnormal tongue tip, and the most serious problem is the pretip. In clinical practice, objective parameters such as tongue distance and F2i/F2u can be used to quantitatively and indirectly evaluate the articulation status and dynamic rehabilitation effect of tongue cancer patients after surgery.

Key words: Tongue cancer, Lingual consonants, Abnormal characteristics, Articulation movement parameters, Correlation