## 4 Discussion
Data taken from Lithuanian linguistic studies indicate that one word in the standard Lithuanian language consists of an average of 2.89 syllables. As the analysis of the reference sources shows, there are clearly two prevalent types of syllables in the Lithuanian language: CV (54.66%) and CVC (24.03%) [22]. On a syllable level, one syllable contains an average of 2.4 phonemes. The consonant-vowel ratio in a syllable, as assessed in the study by [PERSON] and [PERSON], is 54.5% to 45.5% [26]. The results of our study indicate that the syllables in the developed set of word lists characteristically have a consonant-vowel distribution of 55.66% to 44.34%, with two main syllable patterns prevailing, CV (60.3%) and CVC (23.87%), that generally match the data described by Lithuanian linguists. Other important principles in designing speech test materials are the familiarity of test items and the number of test items [27; 28]. Cultural factors influence word familiarity, as certain words may be specific to particular cultures or contexts. Test materials that incorporate culturally relevant vocabulary are more likely to resonate with the listener and enhance their comprehension and performance on speech perception tests. Assuming that word familiarity is basically defined by a word's frequency of occurrence within the language, words for the Lithuanian speech material have been selected from the _Frequency Dictionary of Modern Written Lithuanian_, which is based on the 1 million words of the morphologically annotated corpus. The choice of words has been based on the frequency of words in the dictionary. The words that have been considered to be unfamiliar, culturally insensitive or with negative implications have not been included in the word lists. Only the most frequently used and familiar words have been included in the set of words. Typically, 50-item word lists are adjusted in word recognition tests [2]. The inclusion of 50 items increases the reliability of word recognition scores [27]. Nevertheless, audiologists commonly use 25-item word lists to decrease the test time and mitigate the fatigue effect for participants. According to the literature, the percentage of respondents routinely using full 50-item test lists is decreasing considerably. [PERSON] and [PERSON]'s (1989) survey has shown that 5.9% of respondents presented 50 words to all patients, 56.9%--25 words--to all patients and 24.8% presented 25 words when the first 25 responses have been correct [29]. In the recent study by [PERSON] et al., a \(\times\)2 test has been used to evaluate the inter-list equivalence among six 25-item word lists and three 50-item word lists. The percentage of correct recognition at 12 different presentation levels has not shown significant differences among the lists. The test has indicated the inter-list equivalence in both 25-item and 50-item word lists [6]. According to our study, the percentage of word recognition scores obtained at 40 dB HL is around 99% for the developed word lists. Similar results can also be found in the literature. In their study, [PERSON] and [PERSON] (1976) have shown that individuals with normal hearing sensitivity reach a maximum score of about 99.7% at the most comfortable hearing level [30]. [PERSON] and colleagues have assessed the speech discrimination score of approximately 95% at 32 dB for individuals with normal hearing sensitivity upon administration of CID W-22 and NU-6 [31]. The results of our study indicate strong inter-list reliability with no significant differences (\(p>\) 0.05) between the main word recognition scores on the different lists at each of the tested intensities. The estimation is that the more homogenous the psychometric characteristics of the individual items are, the steeper the slope of the mean psychometric function [32]. The psychometric function average slopes for the developed Lithuanian bisyllabic word listsrange from 4.76%/dB to 4.86%/dB. Coincidentally, these parameters are close to those obtained for English word materials.