Intelligibility
The overall intelligibility of speech is rated on a five-point scale to specify how well the speaker can make himself
understood when reading the Rainbow Passage aloud.
Rainbow Passage
When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and
form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful
colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above,
and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend,
a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look but no one ever finds it. When
a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking
for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
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Below are examples of individual speech intelligibility at each of five rating scales...
| Rating & Comments |
Listen to Audio Sample |
| Level I |
Speech is completely unintelligible.
In this example, speech is unintelligible with single syllable utterances. However, the speaker has fairly good control of pitch. |
(Female) Listen
|
| Level II |
Speech is very difficult to understand-only isolated words or phrases are intelligible.
In this example, occasional words and phrases are intelligible, but in general, the content of the message cannot be understood.
Deviate respiration during speech, pitch breaks, and abnormal prosodic features are evident. Syllables are sometimes arrested at
the level of the glottis. |
(Male) Listen
|
| Level III |
With difficulty, the listener can understand about half the content of the message (intelligibility may improve after a listening period).
In this example, the general content of the message can be understood although the listener has some difficulty. Numerous
articulation errors are evident in addition to faulty coordination of respiration and laryngeal function. Many initial sounds
within breath groups are over-aspirated. Loss of breath and tone support for final sounds within words and phrases is also evident. |
(Male) Listen
|
| Level IV |
Speech is intelligible with the exception of a few words or phrases.
For the most part, in this example, speech was intelligible; however a few words such as "ever, above, reach," could not be understood. |
(Male) Listen
|
| Level V |
Speech is completely intelligible.
A rating of V does not indicate perfect articulation and/or normal quality, but rather speech wich is completely intelligible.
In this example, the speaker did have slight distortions of /s/ and /z/, but these distortions did not interfere with the
intelligibility of the message. |
(Male) Listen
|
|
(1) Intelligibility
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