Norwegian Speech Audiometry

Abstract

A new set of speech audiometry for Norwegian - called "HiST taleaudiometri" - has been developed by the author of this thesis ("HiST" being short for the Norwegian name of Sør-Trøndelag University College and "taleaudiometri" being Norwegian for speech audiometry). The speech audiometry set consists of five-word sentences, three-word utterances, monosyllabic words, monosyllabic words for testing children and numrals. The process of developing the speech audiometry set is presented in this thesis.

The five-word sentences are of the form Name-verb-numeral-adjetive-noun. Hagerman developed this sentence type for Swedish speech audiometry in the 1980s, but for Norwegian the sentences were developed using a new diphone-splitting method. For each word category ten alternatives exist, makings it possible to generate a number of lists with the same phonemic content but with different sentences. A noise was developed from the speech material. This is intended for use together with the speech for the purpose of speech recognition threshold in noise measurements. The material is very suitible for performing repeated measurements on the same person, which is often a requisite for hearing aid evaluation or psychoacoustical testing.

The three-word utterances are of the form numeral-adjective-noun. The words are identical with the last three words used in the five-word sentences. The three-word utterances are intended for speech recognition threshold measurement. The noise developed for five-word sentences can be used together with the three-word utterances for speech recogniton threshold in noise measurements.

Monosyllabic word lists were developed mainly for the purpose of measuring maximum speech recogniton score or the performance-intensity function. The recorded lists earmarked for testing children were developed by Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo.

The numrals used in the "HiST taleaudiometri" set are the numerals that were recorded by Sverre Quist-Hanssen for his speech audiometry. The numerals are organized in groups of three ( digit triplets).