Fundamental frequency characteristics of esophageal and tracheoesophageal speech of Cantonese during speech and non-speech tasks

The study investigated the fundamental frequency (F0) from standard esophageal (SE) and tracheoesophageal (TE) speakers of Cantonese in speech and non-speech tasks, and compared the result with normal laryngeal (NL) speakers when they share different speech and air reservoir mechanism. 10 speakers in each group performed spontaneous speech and standard passage reading in speech tasks, and pitch scaling in non-speech tasks. PRAAT was used in F0 extraction. 1 SE data was excluded due to failure of F0 extraction. Results showed all speaker groups produced significantly higher mean F0 in pitch scaling than spontaneous speech task. Significant differences between SE, TE and NL speakers were only observed in pitch scaling task. Result suggested SE and TE speakers with good speech proficiency could produce a F0 higher than habitual speaking F0, which suggested prosody training in future vocal rehabilitation.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Air pressure and airflow differences between esophageal and tracheoesophageal speech of Cantonese

The present study attempted to investigate the aerodynamic differences between esophageal (SE) and tracheoesophageal (TE) speech of Cantonese. Airflow data was obtained from sustained vowels, and pressure below the pharyngoesophageal (PE) segment was estimated from /ip(h)ip(h)i/ syllables produced by the alaryngeal speakers. Results indicated that SE speech was associated with a lower rate of airflow and a higher pressure below the PE segment than TE speech. Based on the pressure-flow relationship, it is inferred that the estimated neoglottal resistance is greater in SE speakers than in TE speakers. It is speculated that such difference in neoglottal resistance may be related to the use of different air reservoir mechanism between SE and TE speakers.postprintThe 9th Phonetic Conference of China (PCC 2010) and Conference in Evolutionary Linguistics II (CIEL-II), Nankai University, Tianjin, China, 28 May-1 June 2010.第九届中国语音学学术会议、 第二届演化语言学研讨会，中国， 天津，南开大学，2010年5月28日至6月1日

Examining the neoglottal vibratory pattern of Cantonese tracheoesophageal speakers : a preliminary aerodynamic study using inverse-filtering

The present study examined the neoglottal vibratory pattern of Cantonese tracheoesophageal (TE) speakers by inverse-filtering the airflow signals obtained from eight superior TE speakers during phonation. The syllable /papapa/ was used for obtaining airflow signals, and the acoustic signals of the vowels /i, æ, a, ɔ, u/ were also obtained. Aerodynamic parameters obtained were compared between TE and laryngeal speakers. Results revealed that TE speakers exhibited comparable open quotient and airflow volume values but significantly smaller speed quotient values than laryngeal speakers. The marked difference in inverse-filtered airflow signals between TE and laryngeal speech of Cantonese is believed to be related to the use of different sounding mechanisms between the two speaking methods, and the unique vibratory nature of the neoglottis in TE speech.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Acoustic assessment of erygmophonic speech of Moroccan laryngectomized patients

Introduction: Acoustic evaluation of alaryngeal voices is among the most prominent issues in speech analysis field. In fact, many methods have been developed to date to substitute the classic perceptual evaluation. The Aim of this study is to present our experience in erygmophonic speech objective assessment and to discuss the most widely used methods of acoustic speech appraisal. through a prospective case-control study we have measured acoustic parameters of speech quality during one year of erygmophonic rehabilitation therapy of Moroccan laryngectomized patients. Methods: We have assessed acoustic parameters of erygmophonic speech samples of eleven laryngectomized patients through the speech rehabilitation therapy. Acoustic parameters were obtained by perturbation analysis method and linear predictive coding algorithms also through the broadband spectrogram. Results: Using perturbation analysis methods, we have found erygmophonic voice to be significantly poorer than normal speech and it exhibits higher formant frequency values. However, erygmophonic voice shows also higher and extremely variable Error values that were greater than the acceptable level. And thus, live a doubt on the reliability of those analytic methods results. Conclusion: Acoustic parameters for objective evaluation of alaryngeal voices should allow a reliable representation of the perceptual evaluation of the quality of speech. This requirement has not been fulfilled by the common methods used so far. Therefore, acoustical assessment of erygmophonic speech needs more investigations

Development and validation of a comprehensive assessment questionnaire for Cantonese alaryngeal speakers' speech performance

The study devised and validated the perceptual assessment questionnaire for evaluating the speech performance of Cantonese alaryngeal speakers. Forty-eight male alaryngeal speakers participated in the study: 10 electrolaryngeal, 10 esophageal, 9 tracheoesophageal, 9 pneumatic artificial and 10 normal laryngeal speakers. Five speech therapists also participated in the perceptual rating procedures. Results indicated moderate to strong inter-rater reliability in all parameters that involve only auditory judgment except that of rating electrolarynx noise. Assessment parameters that require both auditory and visual judgment might require further modification. For tone perception, moderate to strong inter-rater reliability was also noted. High intra-rater reliability of the assessment questionnaire was also found. In addition, the parameters adopted were reported to have significant correlation with the acoustic correlates except that for pitch rating. The assessment questionnaire suggested appeared to be valid for evaluating auditory dependent speech characteristics of the four types of alaryngeal speech.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Acoustic measurement of overall voice quality in sustained vowels and continuous speech

Measurement of dysphonia severity involves auditory-perceptual evaluations and acoustic analyses of sound waves. Meta-analysis of proportional associations between these two methods showed that many popular perturbation metrics and noise-to-harmonics and others ratios do not yield reasonable results. However, this meta-analysis demonstrated that the validity of specific autocorrelation- and cepstrum-based measures was much more convincing, and appointed ‘smoothed cepstral peak prominence’ as the most promising metric of dysphonia severity. Original research confirmed this inferiority of perturbation measures and superiority of cepstral indices in dysphonia measurement of laryngeal-vocal and tracheoesophageal voice samples. However, to be truly representative for daily voice use patterns, measurement of overall voice quality is ideally founded on the analysis of sustained vowels ánd continuous speech. A customized method for including both sample types and calculating the multivariate Acoustic Voice Quality Index (i.e., AVQI), was constructed for this purpose. Original study of the AVQI revealed acceptable results in terms of initial concurrent validity, diagnostic precision, internal and external cross-validity and responsiveness to change. It thus was concluded that the AVQI can track changes in dysphonia severity across the voice therapy process. There are many freely and commercially available computer programs and systems for acoustic metrics of dysphonia severity. We investigated agreements and differences between two commonly available programs (i.e., Praat and Multi-Dimensional Voice Program) and systems. The results indicated that clinicians better not compare frequency perturbation data across systems and programs and amplitude perturbation data across systems. Finally, acoustic information can also be utilized as a biofeedback modality during voice exercises. Based on a systematic literature review, it was cautiously concluded that acoustic biofeedback can be a valuable tool in the treatment of phonatory disorders. When applied with caution, acoustic algorithms (particularly cepstrum-based measures and AVQI) have merited a special role in assessment and/or treatment of dysphonia severity

Voice onset time (VOT) characteristics of esophageal, tracheoesophageal and laryngeal speech of Cantonese

Also available in print.Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

A comparison of nasalance values in tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis and normal laryngeal speakers.

The purpose of this study was to compare nasalance values in tracheoesophageal (TE) voice prosthesis and laryngeal speakers. Nasalance measures were obtained from 10 age-matched male TE speakers and 10 healthy male laryngeal speakers reading the Zoo Passage and Nasal Sentences. All TE speakers were rated as good to excellent in terms of speech proficiency and intelligibility. Nasalance scores were compared across groups. The findings revealed there were no significant differences in average nasalance values between the two groups. Clinical implications and future research needs are discussed

Exploring Intelligibility in Tracheoesophageal Speech: A Descriptive Analysis

Despite literature that suggests tracheoesophageal (TE) voice restoration to have the highest intelligibility of the three alaryngeal modes of speech, previous studies have shown that TE speech is less intelligible than “normal” speech. It is important to understand where problems related to intelligibility currently exist in order for members of the rehabilitation team to provide the best therapy/prostheses to each individual using TE speech as a mode of communication. This study evaluated the intelligibility of 15 male and female tracheoesophageal speakers. Eighteen normal-hearing, naive, young adult listeners assessed digital voice samples of 15 adult male and female TE speakers. Listeners made judgments by transcribing the monosyllabic words heard into English orthographics. Confusion matrices were then generated based on the transcriptions. The data were analyzed to determine overall intelligibility and to determine if patterns of increased or decreased intelligibility existed based on manner of classification