Acoustical characteristics of intended syllabic stress in excellent esophageal speakers

The ability of excellent esophageal speakers to manipulate acoustical characteristics associated with intended syllabic stress was studied. Five excellent esophageal speakers and five sex- and age-matched normals produced 10 sentence pairs, each containing a bisyllabic stimulus item differing only in primary stress placement. The mean fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, and duration of the stressed and unstressed vowel nuclei were analyzed. Although some differences in absolute levels were apparent, only sound pressure level differences reached statistical significance. For both groups, intended primary stress was associated with a comparable pattern of increased fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, and duration. The present findings suggest that excellent esophageal speakers are capable of producing some correlates of primary syllabic stress in a fashion remarkably similar to but somewhat less consistent than normals. The implications of these data for long-range clinical planning are discussed.