[From intelligibility to comprehension, which measurement in practice?].
The modelling of the tests assessing speech disorders in touch with the international classification of the functioning implies a reflection on measurement tools. The access to the sense of the message from decoding of the signal to the action infers at the interlocutor's justifies various methods. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the limit of the usual tests of intelligibility.


METHODS
A population of 10 subjects presenting a speech disorder secondary to a Head and Neck cancer and 2 subjects controls recorded a corpus of 80 syllables developed with the most frequent 16 French consonants and 5 vowels. The test of intelligibility consisted of a task of identification of consonants by a jury of 11 listeners.


RESULTS
About is the method used to estimate the informative value of the consonants tested, the uvular consonant /r/ and the nasal In/, /m/ are very well perceived. The weighting by the rate of confusion makes tipped over the position of labiodentales If/, /v/ and that of / p/. The just perception of the sound/p/ would be underestimated while sounds /v/ and /f/ would be overestimated. Sounds /g/, /k/, /j/ remain the least well received. This observation results probably from the profile of distortions produced by the selection of the population and probably from the frequency of the syllables containing these consonants in the french language for the sample of the corpus.


CONCLUSIONS
The rate of confusion appears as a fundamental element, inciting to look for more relevant methods of analysis of the results of the tests of intelligibility.
Hôpital Larrey CHU Toulouse, Unité de la voix et de la déglutition, service d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervicofaciale, TSA 30030, 31059 Toulouse cedex 09, France. woisard.v@chu-toulouse.fr
V
V
Woisard
Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR 7309, Aix en Provence, France.
R
R
Espesser
Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR 7309, Aix en Provence, France.
A
A
Ghio
Laboratoire Parole et Langage, UMR 7309, Aix en Provence, France.
D
D
Duez
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010036:Otolaryngology / Q000379:methods; D011364:Professional Practice; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013065:Speech Intelligibility / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*