Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine speech intelligibility of a profound impaired person in the general public. The hearing task of the speech intelligibility consisted of 50 monosyllables (57-S) in Japanese. Speech samples were recorded by the digital audio tape recorder (SONY TCD-10). 50 monosyllables of a profound impaired person were judged by 316 normal listeners. The following findings were observed.The mean speech intelligibility obtained for this hearing task presented by 50 monosyllables were 24.3%, corresponding closely with results of previous studies.
Fricative sounds /ha/, /ho/ and /hu/ showed high percentages of speech intelligibility. Monosyllables of /su, ku, yo, tsu, ro ne/ showed a large number of phonetic confusion. It was suggested that training toward improvement of the hearing impaired person should enable listeners in the general public to examine speech intelligibility.
