Development of Mandarin Fricative-Affricate Nonsense Word Test: Part I. Selection of Best Exemplars.

CHONG FOONG YEN; WAH, LEE ONN; ABDOL, NORFAZILAH; MAZLAN, RAFIDAH

A speech test that emphasizes on fricatives and affricates with high-frequency components is recommended for testing individuals with high-frequency hearing loss. Validation of the frequency-lowering feature in modern hearing aids are also important. There has been no recorded speech material in Malaysia that focuses on Mandarin fricatives and affricates. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a nonsense word test that contains Mandarin sibilant fricatives and affricates. A total of 180 vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) nonsense syllables were recorded from a female and a male talker. These VCV syllables included six targeted Mandarin fricatives and affricates in three vowel contexts. Perceptual and acoustic analysis were conducted and selected VCV syllables were validated by 24 native Mandarin talkers with normal hearing through identification testing. Hundred and three syllables were rated as having a good or excellent sound quality and free from at least one of the idiosyncrasy elements. The average percentage of correct identification of VCV tokens for the female and male talkers were 85.38% and 82.73%, respectively. Syllables that received the highest correct identification scores above the group mean were taken as the best exemplars. In total, 29 best exemplars were selected from 180 VCV syllables for the development of the Mandarin fricative-affricative nonsense word test. Future studies should include the development of performance-intensity function for individuals with normal hearing and a test manual so that the test can be used by non-native Mandarin clinicians.

MANDARIN dialects; FRICATIVES (Phonetics); VERBAL behavior testing; VOCABULARY; SYLLABLE (Grammar); VOWELS; CONSONANTS

Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia, 2018, Vol 16, p179

1675-8161

Academic Journal

10.17576/JSKM-2018-24