Perception of lexical stress in alaryngeal speech

This project was a perceptual investigation of lexical stress in alaryngeal speech. The ability of alaryngeal speakers to signal lexical stress in American English was assessed by obtaining high-quality tape recordings of noun-verb oppositions (e.g., 'insult vs. in'sult) from four normal and 16 laryngectomized speakers using four different types of alaryngeal speech. The recordings of these words were presented to 30 listeners for perceptual evaluation using a two-interval-forced-choice procedure. As expected, the four normal speakers achieved high (93% or above) levels of stress contrast. Lexical stress contrasts were also achieved at a high level of proficiency (88% or above) by all four esophageal speakers, all four tracheoesophageal speakers, one of four users of the Western Electric electrolarynx, and two of four users of the Servox electrolarynx. Lexical stress contrasts were realized in a less (82-86%) but reasonably effective manner by one Western Electric user and two Servox users. The findings were interpreted to highlight the contributions that study of clinical samples may make to investigations of speech production and speech perception.