| Abstract: |
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder stemming from neurologic impairment that disrupts the execution of
speech movements. Because dysarthria primarily affects speech rather than the language system, many
accounts treat “language” as intact in these speakers. Yet their everyday communication reveals patterns
that look like language difficulties: reduced morphological marking, simplified syntax, impoverished
prosody, and pragmatic misunderstandings. This paper integrates core linguistic domains within a clinical
framework to show how dysarthria can produce language-like effects without reflecting a primary linguistic
deficit. This study reviews acoustic-phonetic and prosodic findings across dysarthria subtypes; analyzes
how articulatory constraints cascade into segmental and supra-segmental contrasts; discusses cross
linguistic consequences in tone, vowel harmony, and high-cluster languages; and outlines assessment and
intervention approaches that leverage linguistic theory. The study argues for a linguistically informed motor
view. The paper concludes with a research agenda and clinical implications for assessment, goal-setting,
and treatment that explicitly target communicative effectiveness, not just articulatory precision. |
EBONYI JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE
