Comparing Intelligibility of Several Non-n

Increased global interaction has led to increased communication between individuals with wide ranging linguistic experience. As a consequence, the ramifications of accent in speech production need to be better understood. It is plausible that differences in speech intelligibility due to accent type affect gross intelligibility in different ways. These differences may be differentially affected by the addition of noise. The intelligibility of talkers of five language backgrounds (Ohio English, Japanese, Taiwanese Mandarin, Indian English, and Russian) was assessed using the full Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) test. These results were compared to a measure of intelligibility without noise. Global differences in intelligibility in noise between accent classes were not found, nor were changes in relative intelligibility.