Subjective Intelligibility Testing of Chinese Speech

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.