A direct‐magnitude production scaling technique was employed to study the relationships of three speech variables: intraoral air pressure, lingual pressure, and sound pressure during changes in vocal effort. Selected CVC syllables containing two lingua‐alveolar stop consonants /t/ and /d/ were produced at various effort levels and during periods of increased auditory masking. Exponents of the effort function for intraoral air pressure and for lingual pressure (1.7 and 1.8, respectively) suggest that speakers can monitor effort during speech production. Exponents for production of sound‐pressure level (0.56) are similar to results of previous investigations. Systematically greater average values for /t/ contexts during both masked and nonmasked conditions distinguished intraoral pressure characteristics for consonants differing in force of articulation.