Fala alaríngea: o que sua sonoridade informa, comunica e expressa?

Abstract

Introduction: The present study is based on the hypothesis that the quality of alaryngeal phonation interferes with the perceptions that listeners have about total laryngectomized speakers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the perceptions related to the informative, communicative, and expressive aspects of vocal quality, in their correspondence with the quality of tracheoesophageal phonation. Methods: the research focused on 73 naive listeners, who analyzed the emissions of 06 male individuals with alaryngeal phonation and use of tracheoesophageal prosthesis -PTE- (called ALA group) and 03 with laryngeal speech (called LAR group) of the male gender via electronic form. Based on a phonation quality classification system based on a set of 33 acoustic measurements, 03 subgroups of alaryngeal phonation were divided: ALAa (superior); Alab (intermediate); and ALAc (lower) and a group of 03 laryngeal speakers (LAR) was adopted. Logistic and linear regression procedures were applied as statistical treatment methods. Results: statistically significant correlations were detected between phonation quality and informative (age, general health status and smoking habit), communicative (pleasantness, comprehensibility and credibility) and expressive (activation/tension; humor state and empathy) aspects of vocal quality. Conclusion: lower phonatory quality was related, in the informative field of vocal quality, to the lower estimated age group; greater reference to health problems (more serious) and to greater smoking habits. In the communicative field, it was associated with lower pleasantness, comprehensibility, and credibility. In the expressive field, it revealed a correlation with greater tension, bad mood, and less empathy