| Abstract | Background: Speech production is affected by both the process of phonation and articulation, and speech intelligibility indicates the degree to which one’s spoken signal is understood by listeners. While studies have demonstrated the correlation between articulation and speech intelligibility, there is a paucity of research examining how voice is related to speech intelligibility.
Objective: This study aims to synthesize the existing empirical studies that have examined the relationship between voice features and speech intelligibility, and to systematically review the voice features that relate to speech intelligibility.
Methods: The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Relevant studies were searched from 13 databases, including general databases, gray literature databases and thesis databases. All identified studies were assessed for their quality in terms of reliability, internal validity and external validity.
Results: Thirty-two studies met the eligibility criteria. The assessment of methodological quality showed that the overall quality of studies was fair, with a mean score of 13.91 out of the possible maximum score of 32. Acoustic parameters were the most extensively researched voice features related to speech intelligibility, followed by perceptual voice quality. In contrast, aerodynamic parameters received the least amount of research attention.
Conclusions: Overall, there is a lack of consensus regarding the relationship between different voice parameters and speech intelligibility. Further empirical studies are needed to control for relevant variables and examine the relationship between different voice parameters and speech intelligibility from a multidimensional perspective.
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