Vowel Duration Characteristics of Esophageal Speech

Abstract

The duration of a large number of representative vowels produced by 10 esophageal and nine normal speakers were measured. Overall vowel durations of esophageal speakers were consistently longer than those of normal speakers, indicating that esophageal speakers do not compensate for their striking diminution in air supply for speech by decreasing vowel duration. The differences in the vowel duration characteristics between normal and esophageal speakers were observed to vary systematically as a function of the voicing features of their consonant environments. Specifically, the durations of vowels of esophageal speakers spoken within voiceless consonant environments were consistently longer than those spoken in similar contexts by normal speakers. There were no significant differences between the average durations of vowels spoken by normal and esophageal speakers within voiced consonant environments. The observation that the durations of vowels produced by esophageal speakers differed significantly as a function of the voicing features of their consonant context was interpreted to support the belief that inherent, rule-governed durational features of English are retained following laryngeal amputation.