Cerebellar disease affects a number of skilled movements, including those in 
speech. Ataxic dysarthria, the speech disorder that typically accompanies 
cerebellar disease, was studied by acoustic methods. Control subjects and 
subjects with ataxic dysarthria were recorded while performing a number of 
speaking tasks, including sustained vowel phonation, syllable repetition, 
monosyllabic word production (intelligibility test), sentence recitation, and 
conversation. Acoustic data derived from the speech samples confirmed the 
hypothesis that temporal dysregulation is a primary component of the speech 
disorder. The data also show that the nature of the disorder varies with the 
speaking task. This result agrees with observations on other motor systems in 
subjects with cerebellar disease and may be evidence of a dissociation of 
impairments. Suggestions are offered on the selection of measures for a given 
task and on the role of the cerebellum in the regulation of speaking.