Hearing on the Effects of Tongue Splitting on Speech IntelligibilityStudying how various factors can influence speech, researchers have also investigated the effects tongue splitting has had upon it. Tongue splitting has received some research attention and appears to have relatively little impact on speech intelligibility. Key findings include:
Multiple measures demonstrated that speech intelligibility remained high following the intervention?>
> A study involving four raters rated speech as very or little acceptable, and only minor distortions were reported in certain sounds such as /s/ and /z/. 12
Functioned: The functionality of the tongue remained intact, for the most part, even though there was slight tissue adhesion within a very small region. Retaining that considerable functional synergy between the sides of the tongue, those changes could be largely compensated by adaptive mechanisms for up to a split in two32.
This compensatory nature can be reflected in that participants were adjusting the way they articulate (advancing medio-laterally), which made up for any anatomical changes demonstrated on phenomenological recordings13.
So in short; yes, tongue splitting for cosmetic reasons can modify your articulation somewhat – but it does not create any noticeable impairment to stimulatability or the performance of a divided-tip human tongue.
