BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There can be 3, 192 syllables in Korean language but the frequencies of each syllables are variable. This study was aimed to investigate the frequencies of each Korean syllable in the everyday dialogue and to compare the result with the existing Korean phonetically balanced (PB) word list, which can provide the basic data for the standardization of Korean PB word list. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Using 33 materials (total 537, 245 syllables) collected from TV drama (MBC Best Theater), the author calculated the frequencies of each Korean syllables composed of initial consonant and vowel and compared with existing PB word list by computer program. RESULTS: Each syllable appeared in the different frequency pattern. The 138 of 399 syllables represented the 95% of everyday dialogue. CONCLUSION: This study showed that established PB word list was made relatively well but needs somewhat modification to reflect the actual frequencies of syllable in colloquialism.
Audiometry, Speech ; Drama ; Speech Discrimination Tests

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Korean phonetically balanced (PB) word list (Ham's Korean PB Word List) is currently the most commonly used word list for speech discrimination test. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency characteristics of the Ham's Korean PB word list and to compare frequency characteristics of the Ham's Korean PB word list with that of the 21st Century Sejong words, which represent characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The 300 syllables most commonly used were collected from the words in 21st Century Sejong project. The 21st Century Sejong words were weighted according to the frequency of usage. The 21st Century Sejong words and words from the Ham's Korean PB word list were analyzed using an acoustic analysis program that has the MATLAB function. RESULTS: Syllables with frequencies above 2,000 Hz comprise 34% of the 21st Century Sejong words and 16% of the Ham's Korean PB word list. The Ham's Korean PB word list does not represent the high frequency characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language. The 21st Century Sejong words have more 'eu', 'i' and open syllables than the Ham's Korean PB word list. CONCLUSION: The Ham's Korean PB word list does not reflect the high frequency characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language included in the 21st Century Sejong words. Therefore, a new PB word list that incorporates a greater number of syllables with high frequency characteristics is required.
Acoustics* ; Audiometry, Speech ; Speech Acoustics ; Speech Discrimination Tests

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although several Korean PB (phonetically balanced) word lists were proposed by many investigators, there is not yet a standard PB word list established in Korea. This study aims to study the actual condition of Korean PB word lists, to investigate the frequencies of Korean phonemes and to delineate the commonly used monosyllabic words among them. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The study materials were collected from 80 training hospitals in Korea. The frequencies of the initial consonants, vowels and final consonants in the collected lists were calculated with a computer program. Common monosyllabic words were summarized in a table according to their incidences in the lists. RESULTS: Thirteen lists were used in 80 training hospitals. Hahm's list was most commonly used. Most lists showed a similar trend in the phoneme frequencies. The most common monosyllabic words were /gang/, /nun/, and /don/. CONCLUSION: These results might be valuable information for the production of a new standard Korean PB word list.
Audiometry, Speech ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Research Personnel ; Speech Discrimination Tests

OBJECTIVETo develop a set of Mandarin monosyllabic list for the goal to use as a standardized speech recognition assessment tool in China with sufficient validity, reliability and sensitivity.

METHODSThirty lists were designed based on the following criteria: efficiency, phonemic-balance, familiarity and coverage, while each list was designed corresponding to 25 monosyllables. These lists were read by a male broadcaster, recorded digitally and composed into compact disc. Our work consisted of three phases. Phase I: Sixty adults with normal hearing were recruited from Beijing to repeat as many syllables which they heard as possible. According to the randomized block design, 30 lists were presented with 6 intensities including -1 dB, 5 dB, 11 dB, 15 dB, 21 dB and 27 dB HL(speech). The lists and intensities were counterbalanced across all participants. Recognition scores in individual intensities for each list were calculated, and then logistic regression was utilized to fit Performance-Intensity (P-I) function. Two-way (list No. and Intensity) repeated measurement analysis of variance and Post-Hoc Tukey HSD test indicated that 22 lists were equivalent. Phase II: Twenty-two oral/aural normal adults were recruited to assess monosyllable recognition scores with the 22 equivalent lists at 10 dB HL(Speech), according to the Latin-Square design. Tests were administered twice for all participants with the same procedure and situation during 6 to 35 day intervals. The differences in scores (after a "rationalized" arcsine transformation) among 22 lists across over the two sessions is 9.3%, the data were collected from 22 participants, the measurement error was calculated by SD (standard deviation), the critical difference (CD) for test score improvement was 18.3% (determined as SD x 1.96, in 95% confidence level). Phase III: Eighteen participants with sensorineural hearing loss were recruited to assess recognition perception using 18 equivalent monosyllable lists at 30 dB suprathreshold based on Latin-Square design. Tests were administered twice by using the same procedure and situation within 1 to 16 day intervals. The same approach in Phase II was utilized to calculate SD (8.3%). The CD was calculated as 16.3% (in 95% confidence level).

RESULTSA set of standardized Mandarin recognition assessment material had been developed and it consisted of 22 equivalent phonemic-balanced lists with 25 monosyllables each. Approximately, every single list took 2 minutes, and thus it might be appropriate for clinical assessment. The P-I functions reveal that the recognition threshold was (8.30 +/- 0.84) dB HL(speech) and the slope of PI functions was (4.0 +/- 0.3)%/dB for adults with normal hearing. When a set of Mandarin monosyllable lists was utilized as an assessment tool, the critical difference of 18.3% (for normal-hearing adults) and 16.3% (for hearing-impaired adults) would be a key for clinicians to assess the improvement of speech recognition ability appropriately with statistically significance.

CONCLUSIONIn this study, a new Mandarin monosyllabic lists has been successfully developed with a sufficient validity, reliability and sensitivity for clinical evaluations, thus it might be convenience and helpful to be used as a standardized speech recognition assessment tool in China.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Audiometry, Speech ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Phonetics ; Reproducibility of Results ; Speech Articulation Tests ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo edit the spondee (disyllable) word lists as a part of mandarin speech test materials (MSTM). These will be basic speech materials for routine tests in clinics and laboratories.

METHODSTwo groups of professionals (audiologists, Chinese and Mandarin scientists, linguistician and statistician) were set up at first. The editing principles were established after 3 round table meetings. Ten spondee lists, each with 50 words, were edited and recorded into cassettes. All lists were phonemically balanced (3-dimensions: vowels, consonants and Chinese tones). Seventy-three normal hearing college students were tested. The speech was presented by earphone monaurally. Three statistic methods were used for equivalent analysis.

RESULTSRelated analysis showed that all lists were much related, except List 5. Cluster analysis showed that all ten lists could be classified as two groups. But Kappa test showed that the lists' homogeneity were not well.

CONCLUSIONSSpondee lists are one of the most routine speech test materials. Their editing, recording and equivalent evaluation are affected by many factors. This also needs multi-discipline cooperation. All lists edited in present study need future modification in recording and testing in order to be used clinically and in research. The phonemic balance should be kept.

Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Audiometry, Speech ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the scoring formula and evaluate the lists equivalence of Mandarin Quick Speech-in-Noise (M-Quick SIN) test materials in mainland China, and for standardizing our research. METHOD: Double 39 subjects with normal hearing were participated in part one and part two of our experiments, respectively. 20, 18, 15, 13, 10, 8, 5, 3, 0, -2, -5, -7, -10 dB SNR were presented in part one; and 20, 15, 10, 5, 0, -5 dB SNR were presented in part two. The results were analyzed by SPSS 13.0. RESULT: SNR-50 was -2.24 dB SNR and "SNR loss = 24.5--correct words" was defined as the scoring formula. All the 13 lists had the e quivalent difficulty. CONCLUSION Defined "SNR loss = 24.5--correct words" as the scoring formula of M-Quick SIN, and the 13 lists had better difficulty equivalence, which could be used in our further clinical research.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Noise ; Speech ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; standards ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the monosyllabic and sentence lists of Mandarin speech test materials (MSTMs) which have been evaluated the equivalence of difficulty, and to establish the performance-intensity function (P-I function) for people with normal hearing. METHOD: Forty subjects (the age-ranged from 18 to 25 years old) who speak Mandarin well in their daily lives with normal hearing participated in this study. Eight of them joined the pilot study, which aimed to identify an appropriate presentation level for the formal test. Thirty-two subjects participated in the formal speech perception test. The results were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 11.0. Seven monosyllabic lists (50 words per list) and 15 sentence lists (50 key words per list) were used. RESULT: The results showed P-I function of 3.1% per dB for monosyllabic Mandarin materials and 7.4% per dB for sentence Mandarin materials. The sound pressure level of speech corresponding to a 50% recognition score for monosyllabic lists was 30.1 dBSPL or 10.1 dBHL, and 23.1 dBSPL or 3.1 dBHL for sentence lists. CONCLUSION The study established the P-I function of the Mandarin monosyllabic and sentence materials with equal difficulty, which provides the normative data for identifying the normal hearing in a clinical setting.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Audiometry, Speech ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Young Adult

This study aimed at examining speech defects of open bite patients, which were analized in terms of formant frequency for vowels and word pronunciation length for consonants. In addition, the upper and lower lip (perioral m.) activity was tested by the EMG. The tongue force was measured by the strain gauge, and the speech discrimination test was carried out. One experimental group and one control group were used for this study and they were respectively composed of six female openbite patients and six normal-occlusion females. Eight monophthongs, two fricatives and two affricatives were chosen for speech analysis. Speeches of the above-mentioned groups were recorded and then analized by the ILS/PC-I software. Four hundred most frequently used monosyllables were also chosen for discrimination score. Openbite patients showed the following characteristics: 1. Abnormality in case of /a/, /epsilon/, /e/, /i/ F2 and /e/, /a/ F1. 2. Significantly elongated length in their pronunciation of /h/ and /Ch/ and somewhat elongated length also in their pronunciation of /s/ and /c/. 3. Significant upper lip activity according to the EMG test during pronunciation of the bilabial consonants. 4. Relatively weak tongue force according to the strain gauge measurement. 5. According to the speech discrimination test, high rate of misarticulation in case of (a) initial /p/ /s'/ and /ts'/, (b) /a/, /epsilon/, /e/, /je/, /o/, /phi/, /jo/, /u/, /we/, and /i/ (c) final /eta/.
Articulation Disorders ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Female ; Humans ; Lip ; Open Bite* ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Tongue

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the reliability of disyllabic Mandarin speech test materials (MSTM) which had previously been evaluated the equivalence of difficulty, and to establish the performance-intensity function (P-I function) for people with normal hearing. METHOD: Thirty-five subjects (the age-range 18-25 years) with normal hearing who speak Mandarin well in their daily lives were enrolled in this study. Five of them participated the pilot study, which aimed to identify a presentation level for the formal test. The other thirty subjects participated in the formal speech perception test. The results were analyzed statistically using SPSS 11.0 software. Nine lists of the Mandarin disyllabic materials with equal difficulty were utilized. RESULT: P-I function was y = -200.9 + 13.4x - 0.14x2. The sound pressure level of speech corresponding to a 50% recognition score was 26.4 dB SPL, or 6.4 dB HL. CONCLUSION This study has established the P-I function of the Mandarin disyllabic materials with equal difficulty, which provides the normative data for identifying the normal hearing in a clinical setting.
Adult ; Audiometry, Speech ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Reference Standards ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; statistics & numerical data ; Speech Perception ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To standard test method of Korean speech audiometry, we developed an audio compact disk, the KsoM-07 (Korean Society of Otolaryngolgy, Monosyllabic, 2007) word lists and evaluated them for clinical usage. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The monitored live voice (MLV) of a female talker was digitally recorded with a Beltone audiometer and the GoldWave program. The calibration for each word was done by calculating the root-mean-square (RMS) at the moving time of 300 ms using MATLAB(R) (7.0 version, The MathWorks, Inc. Natick, Massachusetts, USA) and the GoldWave (v 5.25 GoldWave Inc. St. John's, NL, Canada) program. The discrimination score was measured in 20 normal subjects to obtain psychometric function curve of each word and to compare the homogeneity of two lists. The first verification methods for new speech materials were done by comparing the discrimination scores of the flat type and the descending types at 150 sensorineural hearing loss with similar pure tone threshold. RESULTS: 44% of MLV recording was above +/-3 dB deviation and had to be recalibrated. Two lists showed equal difficulty or homogeneity in normal subjects. Discrimination scores were statistically different among the groups with respect to hearing level and the slope of audiogram. CONCLUSION: KsoM-07 word lists were relatively homogeneous and showed differences between the descending type and the flat type of hearing loss. Therefore, KsoM-07 word lists can be useful in evaluating the impairment found in the descending type of sensorineural hearing loss as well as in serving as a new speech test material for Korean monosyllabic words.
Audiometry, Speech ; Calibration ; Compact Disks ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Female ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Humans ; Massachusetts ; Psychometrics ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Speech Intelligibility ; Voice