Acceptability ratings of tracheoesophageal speech

Thirty-one naive listeners rated the intelligibility and acceptability of tracheoesophageal, esophageal, and normal laryngeal speech of 15 adult speakers. Intelligibility was measured using a multiple-choice word test while acceptability was rated on a seven-point equal-appearing interval scale. Judgments were made on the features of fluency, pitch/quality, speech rate, inflection, and overall acceptability. Tracheoesophageal speech was found not to differ significantly from normal speech in intelligibility, rate, and inflection, but was less acceptable for fluency, pitch/quality and overall acceptability. Tracheoesophageal speech was more acceptable than esophageal speech for all features measured.