Cantonese is a tone language with six lexical tones. Each word has a d
istinctive tone, signaled by fundamental frequency variations at the s
yllable level. We investigated the relative efficiency of alaryngeal C
antonese speakers in conveying tonal variations in words in citation f
orm. isolated tone tokens were produced by three esophageal speakers,
two tracheoesophageal speakers, two pneumatic artificial laryngeal spe
akers, and two electrolaryngeal speakers for perceptual tests. The cor
rect responses from 22 listeners were highest for the pneumatic artifi
cial laryngeal speakers, and could be graded in order of proficiency a
s esophageal, tracheoesophageal, and electrolaryngeal speakers. These
results provide a linguistic perspective tor guiding voice rehabilitat
ion and the choice of voice in alaryngeal patients who speak a tone la
nguage.