Which aphasia is characterized by dysfluent, telegraphic utterances with relatively preserved repetition?

• A. Conduction
• B. Anomic
• C. Wernicke
• D. Transcortical motor

Answer: (D)

Nonfluent, telegraphic speech with good repetition points to a motor-language disruption that leaves the repetition mechanism intact. In transcortical motor aphasia, spontaneous speech is severely reduced and consists of short, content-words with many omissions, yet the person can repeat words or sentences normally. This pattern arises because the frontal initiation for speech is impaired, often due to a lesion near the supplementary motor area or anterior to the classic Broca’s region, while the pathways responsible for repeating speech—the arcuate fasciculus and auditory-vocal loop—remain intact, preserving repetition.

Understanding contrasts helps: fluent aphasias like Wernicke or conduction involve fluent speech but come with deficits in comprehension or in repetition, respectively. Anomic aphasia features fluent speech with prominent word-finding problems but still preserves repetition. The combination of nonfluent, telegraphic speech and preserved repetition uniquely fits transcortical motor aphasia.