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Frequency importance function for monosyllables in Malayalam

Abstract Objectives: The phonetic content of Malayalam is different from English and other Indian languages as it may contain more low frequency energy. The present study aimed to determine the frequency importance function (FIF) for monosyllables of Malayalam Language. Study design: Nineteen monosyllables spoken by a native female Malayalam speaker was used for the study. The speech stimuli were digitally filtered into 20 high pass and 20 low pass conditions. Speech noise was added to create nine conditions with SNRs of +8, +6, +4, +2, 0, −2, −4, −6 and −8 dB. The filtered stimuli were presented at these SNRs to 10 normal-hearing Malayalam speakers and were asked to identify the phonemes. Results: The FIF estimated in Malayalam language was compared with the FIF in English obtained from the published literature. The result shows that Malayalam has more weightage for low frequencies compared to English. The probable reason could be because of the inherent phonetic differences. The use of more nasalized speech which has low frequency content might have led to this result. Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that hearing aid fitting in Malayalam speakers should focus on providing more gain at low frequencies for better hearing aid benefit. The study needs to be performed on a larger population for better generalization of the results.