[Intelligibility of French consonants after partial supra-cricoid laryngectomy]

The purpose of this study was to determine what patterns of perceptual confusions characterize the voice of patients after supracricoïd partial laryngectomy (SCPL) by the identification tests of French consonants. We evaluated the voicing distinction.

Ten male patients were recorded 18 months after SCPL. Audio recordings of the 16 French consonants in a syllabic context (CV) produced by each talker with three repetitions were presented to three expert listeners. The listeners transcribed their responses using an open-response paradigm. Listeners' pooled responses were converted to confusion matrices.

Voicing features were altered with a shift of voiced consonants towards voiceless consonants (24%), predominantly for stop consonants.

Consonant articulation appears to impose certain constraints on voicing ability of SCPL patients, since voiced consonants are predominantly perceived as voiceless consonants. Presumably, this poor voicing ability is the direct consequence of the mechanical properties of the neoglottis that are far different from those of the vocal folds. Moreover, assessing consonant identification and intelligibility should help to improve voice therapy and efficiency of speech.