Influence of clear speech on voice onset time and intelligibility of word-initial stop consonants in electrolaryngeal speech

Abstract

This study addressed the influence of clear speech (CS) on voice onset time (VOT) and intelligibility of word-initial (WI) stops in electrolaryngeal (EL) speech. Eighteen consonant-vowel-consonant words containing /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, and /g/ in WI position were spoken by 10 laryngectomees in both habitual speech (HS) and clear speech (CS) conditions. Twelve, naive listeners transcribed a total of 4,320 words across HS and CS conditions of which 720 words (containing WI stops) were analyzed. Results indicate that when using CS, EL speakers produced stops with ~4 milliseconds of greater lag time compared to HS. Further, the intelligibility of WI stops improved 3.8% during CS. Finally, listeners omitted 2.22% more stops in WI position when using HS compared to CS. However, repeated measures analysis of variance revealed no significant effect of speaking condition on VOT or the intelligibility of stops. Collectively, these findings provide initial evidence that volitional attempts to make EL speech clearer via CS does not necessarily facilitate improved VOT or intelligibility for EL speakers.