Nonword reading by adults who stutter in a transparent orthography.

Purpose: Using word- and nonword-reading passages in Kannada, which has a transparent orthography, we attempted to determine (a) whether orthographic differences between English and Kannada may explain the observed differences in stutter rates on nonwords, and (b) whether longer nonwords, like words, incur higher rates of stutters.

Methods: Stutters are defined as sound or syllable repetitions, sound prolongations, broken words or nonwords (a pause within a word or nonword), abnormal pauses, and intrusive vowel-like sounds. Twenty-six persons, who stutter, read the word and nonword passages.

Stuttering in relation to the morphophonemics of Kannada.

The present study investigated the effect of certain unique morphophonemic features of Kannada words on the rate of stutters in a group of 22 adolescent and adult persons who stuttered in an oral reading task. A linear regression analysis showed that word length ranging from 1 to 8 syllables was a potent variable in the occurrence of stutters accounting for 25.3% of stutters.

Motor learning cannot explain stuttering adaptation.

When persons who stutter (PWS) read a text repeatedly, there is a progressive reduction in stutter frequency over the course of three to five readings. Recently, this phenomenon has been attributed by some researchers to motor learning-the acquisition of relatively permanent motor skills that facilitate fluency through practice in producing words. The current study tested this explanation.

Segmental intelligibility of four currently used text-to-speech synthesis methods.

The study investigated the segmental intelligibility of four currently available text-to-speech (TTS) products under 0-dB and 5-dB signal-to-noise ratios. The products were IBM ViaVoice version 5.1, which uses formant coding, Festival version 1.