Intelligibility of Arabic Esophageal Speech: A Preliminary Study

This study reports on how intelligible Arabic esophageal speech is. Recording of three Arabic esophageal speakers reading a (100 - word) passage in standard Arabic was obtained. The recordings were reviewed by two groups of judges. 10 judges were exposed to esophageal speech and 10 were not (college students). Both groups wrote the words they heard in standard Arabic and rated the intelligibility on a five-point scale. Results revealed a significant difference in the correctly identified words in the reading passage between the two groups. However, no significant difference was found between the two groups in intelligibility rating. Also, a strong negative correlation was found between intelligibility rating for the reading passage and the correctly identified words. Additionally, the exposed groups were asked to phonetically transcribe a list of words representing all standard Arabic sounds in order to evaluate the mechanically induced “phonological” and phonetic influences on speech intelligibility. It was concluded that compensatory articulation therapy is a necessary step in improving Arabic esophageal speech intelligibility.