Development of Speech Audiometry: Material in Tulu Language

A comprehensive hearing evaluation should include an assessment of hearing that uses test stimuli similar to the auditory information conveyed during speech communication. Speech audiometry refers to a battery of testing procedures and protocols aimed at estimating an individual‘s ability to hear and understand speech. Recently, efforts have been made to create high-quality materials for Speech Reception / Recognition threshold (SRT), and other types of speech audiometry, in a variety of languages. There are various speech audiometry material developed in different languages since India being multilingual in nature .However, there are still many languages for which there are no materials widely available, such as the Tulu language. Tulu language is considered as one of the five Dravidian languages of South India. Though, Tulu is confined to a small region of India, it possesses a very rich vocabulary and has been considered as a highly developed language by linguists. Testing in the native language is preferred for the results to be accurate and relevant. The purpose of this project was to develop and digitally record materials in Tulu for measuring the SRT.