The Effects of Omissions and Substitutions of Selected Consonants on Intelligibility

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Abstract
Three groups of 10 naive university students were presented taped speech samples (sentences) of the speech of elementary school children. Each sentence contained one articulatory error (omission or substitution) of one of six consonants under study (/r/, /θ/, /z/, /d3/, /s/, and ltñ/). The subjects wrote down what they understood each speaker to say in each of the 72 sentences. Results indicate that in order to compare omissions and substitutions in their effect on intelligibility, each must be qualified by phoneme. Errors on all phonemes do not affect intelligibility to the same degree. The differences between phonemes, however, are not meaningful until qualified by error type. Of the twelve phonemes‐by‐error type studied, /z/ substitutions, /r/ substitutions, and /r/ omissions impeded intelligibility the least. The /θ/ omissions impeded intelligibility more than /z/ and /r/ substitutions and /r/ omissions but significantly less than the other phonemes by error type considered. The /d3/*** substitutions, /θ/ substitutions, /t ñ/ substitutions, /z/ omissions, /s/ substitutions, and /s/ omissions were homogeneous and impaired intelligibility more than the other phonemes‐by‐error type considered.

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