Typical fluency in Finnish adults

Authors

• Nelly Penttilä Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere
• Anna-Maija Korpijaakko-Huuhka Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere
• Raymond D. Kent Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23997/pk.77384

Keywords:

adults, disfluencies, fluency, normal variation, typical speech

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate speech disfluencies in non-disordered Finnish adult
speakers to gain normative data of typical fluency in Finnish. Narrative speech samples from
70 healthy adults were analyzed for disfluency types and their frequencies, as well as for
relations between various disfluencies. The most common disfluency type was hesitation, and
the mean disfluency frequency was 2,34 % (range = 0,0–7,8 %). Revisions, word repetitions
and hesitations were statistically significant components of disfluency. As the disfluency
frequency increased, the most common disfluency type changed. In factor analysis, four
factors were found: disfluencies related to 1) language formulation (interruptions and
revisions), 2) planning the message (hesitation and interjections), 3) maintaining fluency
(word- and phrase repetitions) and 4) articulation (sound- and syllable repetitions). Of these
factors, disfluencies related to language formulation and fluency maintenance contributed
statistically significantly to disfluency frequency. The results support the view that fluency
manifests as a continuum with wide variation of different disfluencies. These results serve
as a normative reference for future studies and help clinicians in assessing fluency disorders.