description
Background: Often, in patients with throat or hypopharynx cancer, the only possible solution is to remove the throat completely. The socalled laryngectomy leads to inability to produce voice, so patients are forced to learn one of the alternative forms of speech – oesophageal speech (ES) is one of them. In order to acquire it, patients have to learn new speech patterns. We can use perceptive tests and speech assessments to determine how successful patients are in learning the required new speech patterns and how others perceive their speech. The main purpose of the case study was to investigate the adequacy of articulation of a Slovenian oesophageal speaker according to intelligibility, acceptability and likeability of her speech. Methods: The case study investigated the speech of a speaker, who underwent laryngectomy 25 years ago. 18 participants, aged between 20 and 24 years, listened to audio recordings of her speech. In perception tests, they noted what they heard, and in speech assessment, they assessed the speech, comparing it with an “ideal” speaker, a speaker with rhoticism, and a hoarse speaker. Results: Perceptive tests have shown that the speaker pronounces most of the voices intelligibly; intelligibility is only worse in voiced sounds. In the first part of the test, participants recognized only 43 % of her voiced plosives, 31 % of her voiced fricatives, and none of her voiced affricates. In the second part, participants perceived 96 % of the spoken voiceless sounds as voiceless, but they only perceived 42 % of the voiced sounds as voiced. Speech assessment has shown that participants assessed ES as the least intelligible, the least acceptable, and the least likeable (compared to an “ideal” speech, hoarse speech and speech with rhoticism), but its assessments did not differ statistically significantly from a hoarse speech in any of the parameters. Conclusion: The ES speaker has difficulty pronouncing voiced plosives, fricatives, and affricates. Her speech is considered relatively intelligible, but unacceptable and very unlikeable.