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Subjective Intelligibility Testing of Chinese Speech

McLoughlin, Ian Vince (2008) Subjective Intelligibility Testing of Chinese Speech. Ieee Transactions On Audio Speech And Language Processing, 16 (1). pp. 23-33. ISSN 1558-7916. (doi:10.1109/TASL.2007.909450) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:48834)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TASL.2007.909450

Abstract

This paper presents a complete methodology and rationale for the subjective intelligibility testing of Chinese speech. It replaces the combination of several previously published Chinese intelligibility tests which have been in use for almost a decade, with a single composite test procedure constructed from a foundation of subjective trials and auditory evidence. Since publication of the first elements of Chinese intelligibility test, several factors have come to light which prompted this overhaul. First, international testing has highlighted words used in the original test that are unsuitable for speakers of particular regional dialects. Second, recent evidence indicates that the assumptions of tonal confusion made during the definition of the original tonal intelligibility tests are not borne out by subjective evidence. Finally, words published in the original test disadvantaged speakers from Mainland China due to the use of full-form Chinese characters rather than the more ubiquitous simplified form characters. This paper presents experimental evidence of tone confusion in Chinese speech, and uses this data to create a replacement tone test. Word choice has been adjusted to find more neutral alternatives for particular regional dialect speakers. The basic speech and tone extension tests are now presented with simplified form characters to ensure accessibility by the greatest number of test subjects. Finally, this paper includes a description of the full intelligibility test.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1109/TASL.2007.909450
Uncontrolled keywords: chinese, chinese diagnostic rhyme test (cdrt), diagnostic rhyme test (drt), intelligibility, mandarin, tone
Subjects: T Technology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Depositing User: Ian McLoughlin
Date Deposited: 07 Sep 2015 13:01 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:19 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/48834 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

McLoughlin, Ian Vince.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7111-2008
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