The Relationship Of Minimal Phontetic Contrast And Speech Intelligence In Chinese Mandarin

Objective To determine the intelligibility deficit patterns based on minimal pairs,explore the clincial characteristic of articulation disorders, validate a speechintelligibility test in Chinese mandarin,and investigate the relationship of minimalphontetic contrast and speech intelligence for the evaluation of speakers witharticulation disorders.Methods Both thirty cleft palate patients with dysarthria and thirty patients withfunctional articulation disorders were included as speakers for the test. Then thespeech intelligibility of each speaker was rated and the error proportions of eachminimal pair were analyzed by SPSS17.0. The stepwise multiple regression analysiswas employed to determine which minimal pairs were the best predictors of reducedspeech intelligibility.Results The intelligibility scores were obtained form the thirty speakers of cleftpalatal group ranged from35%to91%. The error proportion of the minimal pairs wasranged from0.10to0.63. The six most problematic pairs, from the most to leastsevere were palatal versus dental(0.63),aspirated versus un aspirated affricativepair(0.61),aspirated versus un aspirated plosive pair(0.54),alveolar versusvelar(0.52),un aspirated affricate versus fricative(0.48),and aspirated plosive versusnasal(0.47). while the intelligibility scores of functional articulation disorders groupranged from71.0%to94.0%. The error proportion of the minimal pairs was rangedfrom0.10to0.78. The six most problematic pairs, from the most to least severewere alveolar versus velar(0.78),retroflex versus dental(0.61),aspirated versusun aspirated affricative pair(0.58),palatal versus retroflex(0.51),palatal versus dental(0.49),and un aspirated affricate versus fricative(0.47).Conclusion The speech intelligibility test for Chinese Mandarin speakers withdysarthria can be used as an effective evaluation method, both qualitatively andquantificationally.