Speech segment durations produced by healthy and asthmatic subjects.

Speech segment durations of various lengths were measured to study the effect of asthma. Subjects produced 5 min of conversation and a monologue and counted at a rate of two numbers per second at two loudness levels. The number of syllables per breath was determined for all tasks. Average sound pressure level, individual segments such as voice onset time, word duration, pause time, and total duration of the activity were compared between groups for the counting tasks. Results revealed that asthmatic speakers met the sound level requirements of loud counting and generally produced speech segment durations similar to healthy subjects. Asthmatic subjects increased pause time between speech segments, produced fewer syllables per breath, and spent a larger percentage of time in nonspeech ventilatory activity than the healthy subjects, presumably to meet metabolic needs.