The memory trace of the pitch sensation induced by a standard tone (S) can be strongly degraded by subsequently intervening sounds (I). Deutsch [Science168, 1604–1605 (1970)] suggested that the degradation is much weaker when theIsounds are words than when they are tones. In Deutsch’s study, however, the pitch relations betweenSand theIwords were not controlled. The first experiment reported here was similar to that of Deutsch except that the speech and nonspeech stimuli used asIsounds were matched in pitch. The speech stimuli were monosyllabic words derived from recordings of a real voice, whereas the nonspeech stimuli were harmonic complex tones with a flat spectral profile. These two kinds ofIsounds were presented at a variable pitch distance (Δ‐pitch) from theStone. In a same/different paradigm,Shad to be compared with a tone presented 6 s later; this comparison tone could be either identical toSor shifted in pitch by ±75 cents. The nature of theIsounds (spoken words versus tones) affected discrimination performance, but markedly less than did Δ‐pitch. Performance was better when Δ‐pitch was large than when it was small, for the speech as well as nonspeechIsounds. In a second experiment, theSsounds and comparison sounds were spoken words instead of tones. The differences to be detected were restricted to shifts in fundamental frequency (and thus pitch), the other acoustic attributes of the words being left unchanged. Again, discrimination performance was positively related to Δ‐pitch. This time, the nature of theIsounds (words versus tones) had no significant effect. Overall, the results suggest that, in auditory short‐term memory, the pitch of speech sounds is not stored differently from the pitch of nonspeech sounds.