Abstract
In this study, the results of the articulation score of the voiced and voiceless consonants were compared in volunteers and patients. Using the Japanese test materials List 57 AB and List 67 AB, we selected the pre-vowel voiced consonants group and the pre-vowel voiceless consonants group from their monosyllable words. For discrimination measuring, the intensity was kept constant every one list and presented at each 10dB in random order of sensation level, and the percentage of correctly repeated words was recorded for both the voiced and voiceless consonants group.
In normal subjects the discrimination ability for the voiced consonants was many times somewhat better than for the voiceless consonants. In conductive deafness this relationship was the same as in normal ears. In perceptive high tone deafness, the voiceless consonants were more poorly discriminated than the voiced consonants. In mixed deafness the situation was not so clear.
On the other hand, the curve with rising or horizontal air conduction thresholds in Ménièr's disease was associated with a clearly lower discrimination for the voiced consonants than for the voiceless consonants. This phenomenon might be applicable in typical cases of perceptive deafness in speech range with complete recruitment.
