## 2 Methodology
### Speech Stimuli and Recording Procedure  
Each speaker recorded three experimental word lists in random order: (1) The 30-item _Northwestern Intelligibility Test_[49], (2) the 50-item _Consonant Rhyme Test_[50], and (3) the 66-item _Weiss and Basili_[51] word list. These lists were selected due to their prior use in past research on postlaryngectomy speech intelligibility. Thus, all three lists had a majority of stimuli composed of scorable items in both word-initial and word-final positions due to CVC items. Briefly, the Northwestern Intelligibility Test (NIT) comprised 26 consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) stimuli, 2 CV, 1 VC, and 1 CVCC stimuli. Thus, there were 29 scorable consonants in both initial and final positions. The Consonant Rhyme Test (CRT) was composed of 48 CVC and 2 CV stimuli. Thus, the CRT had 50 scorable consonants in the word-initial position and 48 in the word-final position. Finally, the Weiss and Basili List (W&B) was composed of 58 CVC, 5 CV, and 3 VC stimuli. This resulted in 63 scorable initial consonants and 61 final consonants. Relative to stimulus items and the distribution of phonemes, there was variability in the consonants represented across the three stimulus word lists. For all lists, however, the majority of stimuli contained an initial and/or final stop, fricative, or afficate cognate consonant. For the NIT, the 30 words were either initiated (\(n=20\)) or terminated (\(n=19\)) with a stop, fricative, or afficate. Words on the 50-item CRT were either initiated (\(n=31\)) or terminated (\(n=25\)) with a consonant from one of these three manner classes. Finally, for the 66 words on the W&B list, 48 were initiated, and 46 were terminated with a stop, fricative, or afficate cognate. For the remaining stimuli on all lists, and with the exception of consonants where phonological rules restricted their use (e.g., /\(\eta\)/in the initial position), all other words did include either a nasal (/m/, /\(n\)/, or/\(\eta\)/) or a liquid-glide (/1/, /r/, /w/, or /j/) consonant in one or both positions. Thus, all lists were constructed with a substantial weighting toward sounds that involved cognate consonant pairs that differed in voicing (see Table 1). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**NIT**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**CRT**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**W\&B**} \\  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(30 Words)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(50 Words)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(66 Words)**} \\ \hline  & **Initial** & **Final** & **Initial** & **Final** & **Initial** & **Final** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Stops**} & 8 & 11 & 20 & 24 & 18 & 19 \\  & (27.6\%) & (42.3\%) & (40.8\%) & (50\%) & (28.6\%) & (31.7\%) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Fracatives**} & 11 & 6 & 10 & 24 & 21 \\  & (37.9\%) & (23\%) & (20.4\%) & & (38.1\%) & (35\%) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Afficates**} & 1 & 2 & 1 & 1 & 6 & 6 \\  & (3.4\%) & (7.7\%) & (2\%) & (2\%) & (9.5\%) & (10\%) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Nasals**} & 1 & 5 & 7 & 13 & 6 & 8 \\  & (3.4\%) & (19.2\%) & (14.3\%) & (27.1) & (9.5\%) & (13.3\%) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Liquid/Gildes**} & 7 & 2 & 11 & 10 & 9 & 6 \\  & (24.1\%) & (7.7\%) & (22.4\%) & (20.8\%) & (14.3\%) & (10\%) \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Blends**} & 1 & & & & & \\  & (3.4\%) & & & & & \\ \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Totals \({}^{*}\)**} & 29 & 26 & 63 & 60 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Please note that two stimulus words ended in double consonants (/nd/.).
* This total represents the combined number of scorable items (consonants) in any given position (initial vs. final) within any of the three word lists evaluated.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Summary of stimulus item composition from the Consonant Rhyme Test (CRT), Northwestern Intelligibility Test (NIT), and Weiss and Basili (W&B) lists. Each speaker recorded the experimental stimuli in a sound-treated audiometric suite (IAC-11648) using a high quality, cardioid condenser microphone (Shure PG81) coupled to a pre-amplifier and then digitized using Sona Speech II ([PERSON], Montvale, NJ, USA) at a sampling rate of 48 KHz.