Familiar and Common Telugu Trisyllabic Words for Speech Perception Assessment: A Sociolinguistic Perspective

The present study aimed to develop a set of familiar, common Telugu trisyllabic words that are socioculturally acceptable and linguistically appropriate, and that also meet the stimulus characteristics regarding acoustic-phonetic parameters for use in speech-perception assessment. A pool consisting of 255 trisyllabic words was gathered from different sources. They were subjected to a familiarity assessment to ensure they are known to and commonly used by native speakers of Telugu. This yielded a total of 195 words, categorised into three groups: most familiar, quite familiar, and fairly familiar. Experts in the relevant fields vetted these words to validate their sociocultural acceptability and linguistic appropriateness. The words that accumulated after validation were categorised into three groups: most appropriate, quite appropriate, and fairly appropriate words. These words were organised in a descending hierarchy based on the familiarity level of each word and its corresponding appropriateness level. Finally, these words were audio-recorded and perceptually evaluated by three experts to identify those that fulfilled the stimulus criteria needed for the intended speech perception measure. As a result, 104 words were identified that fulfilled the stimulus criteria and ultimately served as the foundation for developing speech stimuli for the intended speech perception measure.