organs of speech in english language

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Organs of Speech with diagram | Classification of Organs of speech | Try.Fulfil.

Discuss different organs of speech in producing speech sounds with diagram/ draw a labelled diagram to show the articulatory organs of speech production , organs of speech with diagram, organs of speech diagram, d efinition of  organs of speech,  classification of  organs of speech,  difference between voiced and voiceless,  try.fulfil., diagram of the organs of speech: short answer :, difference between voiced and voiceless:.

Organs of Speech Diagram : Broad answer:

Definition of organs of speech with diagram:, classification of organs of speech:.

• A bladder-like structure.
• Made of alveolic.
• Air passes to lungs through trachea.
• Muscles of the lungs expand and contract for ingression or egression.
• The lung air stream is called pulmonic air stream mechanism.
• Pulmonic air stream: 1. Aggressive. 2. Ingressive.
• Aggressive air stream produces speech sounds.
• Ingressive air stream produces non-linguistic sounds.

Organsof speech with Diagram: Larynx:

• Placed right behind the Adam’s apple.
• It is mostly called Sound Box.
• Vocal cords are the main organs of larynx.
• Vocal cords are held together – Arytenoids Cartilages (Vocal cords’ structure name).
• Vocal cords are wide – air passes freely. (Example: /f, s/)
• Vocal cords are combined – air can’t pass freely, there is vibration.
• Vibration in cords – voiced sounds are produced.
• No vibration in cords – voiceless sounds are produced.
• Opened vocal cord is called Glottis.
• In different states of glottis – several sounds are produce.
• Types of glottis – voiced, voiceless, murmur and creaky voice

Organsof speech with Diagram: Pharynx:

Ø   A tube-like structure with two ends.

Ø   One ends goes to the mouth – Oral cavity.

Ø   Other end goes to the nose – Nasal cavity.

Ø   Opening / Closing of pharynx managed by – Velum / Soft palate.

Ø   Full region of pharynx – Vocal tract.

Ø   Organs of oral cavity – Upper jaw, lower jaw, palate.

Ø   Oral cavity also contains tongue. A tongue has five parts: tip,blade, front, middle and back.

Ø   Nasal cavity – A blank structure.

Ø   Two openings in the Nasal cavity – Nostrils.

* See the diagram of Pharynx in the upper side of this text.

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Chapter 11.2: Speech Organs

Chapter 11.2 The organs of speech

When we speak, we use our vocal tracts to produce sounds, or phones. Before examining the sounds we make in English, it is helpful to understand what these organs are and how they are used.

In English, almost all sounds are made by obstructing the air in some way as it passes through the oral cavity. Air is expelled from the lungs, up through the glottis, past the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two thin membranes that stretch across the larynx. They open when we breath, but they vibrate against each other when we make certain sounds (called “voiced” sounds), as you can see in the following videos:

Once the air has passed the vocal cords, it is restricted or obstructed, often by some part of the tongue as it is placed near or against various parts of the oral cavity. These places include the lips, the teeth, the hard alveolar ridge directly behind the teeth, the long, concave roof of the mouth, called the palate or sometimes the hard palate, and then the velum, also called the soft palate. For most sounds the velum closes the passage into the nasal cavity, but for nasal sounds the passage is left open so that air can resonate there.

In this video of two people, an opera singer and a beat boxer, you can see how the speech organs move to create different sounds. As you watch, concentrate on the movements of the tongue — notice where and how it hits against various parts of the mouth, or how it shapes itself to produce different vowels. After completing the entire section on phonology, you might want to come back and watch it again.

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3 Chapter 3: Phonetics (The Sounds of Speech)

Learning outcomes.

After studying this chapter, you should be able to discuss:

• the three aspects of speech that make up phonetics
• the International Phonetic Alphabet
• the theories of speech perception

Introduction

Think about how you might describe the pronunciation of the English word cat (cat pictured below). If you had to tell someone what’s the first sound of the word, what would you tell them?

Read this poem out loud:

“Hints on pronunciation for foreigners ”

by Anonymous (see note)

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough. Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, lough* and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead-it’s said like bed, not bead. For goodness sake, don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat. They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother, And here is not a match for there, Nor dear and fear for pear and bear. And then there’s dose and rose and lose Just look them up–and goose and choose. And cork and work and card and ward. And font and front and word and sword. And do and go, then thwart and cart. Come, come I’ve hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive, I’d mastered it when I was five!

*Laugh has been changed to lough, which is pronounced “lock” and is suggested as the original spelling here.

NOTE: For interesting tidbits about the origins of this poem, see the comments on this blog post .

What does this poem show us about the need for phonetic description?

In addition to variations of pronunciation of the same groupings of letters, the same word, with the same spelling, can have different pronunciations by different people (for example, because of different dialects). The point here is that English spelling does not clearly and consistently represent the sounds of language. In fact, English writing is infamous for that problem.There are lots of subtle differences between pronunciations, and these can’t always be explained with traditional casual ways of explanation. We need a very systematic and formal way to describe how every sound is made. That’s what phonetics is for.

What is Phonetics?

Phonetics looks at human speech from three distinct but interdependent viewpoints:

• Articulatory phonetics (The  Production of Speech)…studies how speech sounds are produced.
• Auditory phonetics (The  Perception of Speech)…studies the way in which humans perceive sounds.
• Acoustic phonetics (The  Physics of Speech)…studies the physical properties of speech sounds.

Articulatory Phonetics

When people play a clarinet or similar instrument, they can make different sounds by closing the tube in different places or different ways. Human speech works the same way: we make sound by blowing air through our tube (from the lungs, up the throat, and out the mouth and/or nose), and we change sounds by changing the way the air flows and/or closing the tube in different places or in different ways.

There are three basic ways we can change a sound, and they correspond to three basic phonetic “features”. (The way I am categorizing features here may be different than what’s presented in some readings; there are lots of different theories about how to organize phonetic features.) They are as follows:

• We can change the way the air comes out of our lungs in the first place, by letting our vocal folds vibrate or not vibrate. This is called voicing . (Voicing is also closely related to aspiration , although they are realized in different ways. The complex relationship between voicing and aspiration is beyond the scope of this subject; for our purposes, you can just treat them as the same thing, and you can use the terms “voiced” and “unaspirated” interchangeably, and use the terms “voiceless” and “aspirated” interchangeably.)
• We can change the way that we close the tube—for example, completely closing the tube will create a one kind of sound, whereas than just narrowing it a little to make the air hiss will create a different kind of sound. This aspect of how we make sound is called manner of articulation .
• We can change the place that we close the tube — for example, putting our two lips together creates a “closure” further up the tube than touching our tongue to the top of our mouth does. This aspect of how we make sound is called  place of articulation (“articulation” means movement, and we close our tube by moving something—moving the lips to touch each other, moving the tip of the tongue to touch the top of the mouth, etc.—, so “place of articulation” means “the place that you move to close your mouth).

Articulatory phonetics investigates how speech sounds are produced. This involves some basic understanding of

• The anatomy of speech i.e. the lungs, the larynx and the vocal tract;
• Airstream mechanisms, that is, the mechanisms involved in initiating and producing the types of airstreams used for speech.

Adopting anatomical and physiological criteria, phoneticians define segmental (i.e. the sounds of speech) and suprasegmental (e.g. tonal phenomena).

The Anatomy of Speech

Three central mechanisms are responsible for the production of speech:

• Respiration: The lungs produce the necessary energy in form of a stream of air.
• Phonation: The larynx serves as a modifier to the airstream and is responsible for phonation.
• Articulation: The vocal tract modifies and modulates the airstream by means of several articulators.

Respiration

Before any sound can be produced at all, there has to be some form of energy. In speech, the energy takes the form of a stream of air normally coming from the lungs. Lung air is referred to as pulmonic air.

The respiratory system is used in normal breathing and in speech and is contained within the chest or thorax. Within the thoracic cavity are the lungs, which provide the reservoir for pulmonic airflow in speech.

The lungs are connected to the trachea, by two bronchial tubes which join at the base of the trachea. At the lower end of the thoracic cavity we find the dome-shaped diaphragm which is responsible for thoracic volume changes during respiration. The diaphragm separates the lungs from the abdominal cavity and lower organs.

The larynx consists of a number of cartilages which are interconnected by complex joints and move about these joints by means of muscular and ligamental force. The larynx has several functions:

• the protective function
• the respiratory function
• the function in speech

The primary biological function of the larynx is to act as a valve, by closing off air from the lungs or preventing foreign substances from entering the trachea. The principal example of this protective function of the larynx is the glottal closure, during which the laryngeal musculature closes the airway while swallowing.

During respiration, the larynx controls the air-flow from subglottal to supraglottal regions. Normally, humans breathe about 15 times per minute (2 sec. inhaling, 2 sec. exhaling). Breathing for speech has a different pattern than normal breathing. Speaking may require a deeper, more full breath than regular inhalation and such inhalation would be done at different intervals. A speaker’s breathing rate is no longer a regular pattern of fifteen to twenty breaths a minute, but rather is sporadic and irregular, with quick inhalation and a long, drawn out, controlled exhalation (exhaling can last 10 to 15 seconds).In speech production, the larynx modifies the air-flow from the lungs in such a way as to produce an acoustic signal. The result are various types of phonation.

• Normal voice

The most important effect of vocal fold action is the production of audible vibration – a buzzing sound, known as voice or vibration. Each pulse of vibration represents a single opening and closing movement of the vocal folds. The number of cycles per second depends on age and sex. Average male voices vibrate at 120 cycles per second, women’s voices average 220 cycles per second.

Articulation

Once the air passes through the trachea and the glottis, it enters a long tubular structure known as the vocal tract. Here, the airstream is affected by the action of several mobile organs, the active articulators. Active articulators include the lower lip, tongue, and glottis. They are actively involved in the production of speech sounds.

The active articulators are supported by a number of passive articulators, i.e. by specific organs or locations in the vocal tract which are involved in the production of speech sounds but do not move. These passive articulators include the palate, alveola, ridge, upper and lower teeth, nasal cavity, velum, pharynx, epiglottis, and trachea.

The production of speech sounds through these organs is referred to as articulation .

Articulation of Consonants in North American English

Introduction to Articulatory Phonetics licensed CC BY .

Articulation of Vowel Sounds in North American English

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

The International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA ) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation of speech sounds in written form. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators and translators.

The IPA is designed to represent those qualities of speech that are part of sounds in oral language: phones, phonemes, intonation, and the separation of words and syllables.

IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics. For example, the sound of the English letter ⟨t⟩ may be transcribed in IPA with a single letter, [t] , or with a letter plus diacritics, [t̺ʰ] , depending on how precise one wishes to be. Slashes are used to signal phonemic transcription; thus /t/ is more abstract than either [t̺ʰ] or [t] and might refer to either, depending on the context and language.

This website shows the sounds from American English represented with the IPA. In addition, you can type in any English word and get the phonetic conversion!

Suprasegmental Features

Vowels and consonants are the basic segments of speech. Together, they form syllables, larger units, and eventually utterances. Superimposed on the segments are a number of additional features known as suprasegmental or prosodic features. They do not characterize a single segment but a succession of segments. The most important suprasegmental features are:

In a spoken utterance the syllables are never produced with the same intensity. Some syllables are unstressed (weaker), others stressed (stronger).

A stressed syllable is produced by an increase in respiratory activity, i.e. more air is pushed out of the lungs.

The video below suggests that chimpanzees can speak. Is that true? HInt: Think about anatomical reasons that chimpanzees may or may not be able to speak.

Auditory Phonetics

Auditory phonetics investigates the processes underlying human speech perception. The starting point for any auditory analysis of speech is the study of the human hearing system i.e. the anatomy and physiology of the ear and the brain.

Since the hearing system cannot react to all features present in a sound wave, it is essential to determine what we perceive and how we perceive it. This enormously complex field is referred to as speech perception .

This area is not only of interest to phonetics but is also the province of experimental psychology.

The Auditory System

The auditory system consists of three central components:

• The outer ear – modifies the incoming sound signal and amplifies it at the eardrum.
• The middle ear – improves the signal and transfers it to the inner ear.
• The inner ear – converts the signal from mechanical vibrations into nerve impulses and transmits it to the brain via the auditory nerve.

The outer ear consists of the visible part, known as the auricle or pinna, and of the interior part. The auricle helps to focus sound waves into the ear, and supports our ability to locate the source of a sound.

From here, the ear canal, a 2.5 cm long tube, leads to the eardrum.The main function of the ear canal is to filter out tiny substances that might approach the eardrum. Furthermore, it amplifies certain sound frequencies(esp.between 3, 000 and 4, 000 Hz) and protects the eardrum from changes in temperature as well as from damage.

Behind the eardrum lies the middle ear, a cavity which is filled with air via the Eustachian tube (which is linked to the back of the nose and throat).

The primary function of the middle ear is to convert the sound vibrations at the eardrum into mechanical movements. This is achieved by a system of three small bones, known as the auditory ossicles. They are named after their shape:

• the malleus (hammer)
• the incus (anvil)
• the stapes (stirrup)

When the eardrum vibrates due to the varying air pressure caused by the sound waves, it causes the three small bones, the so-called ossicles, to move back and forth. These three bones transmit the vibrations to the membrane-covered oval opening of the inner ear. Together, the ossicles function as a kind of leverage system, amplifying the vibrations by a factor of over 30 dB by the time they reach the inner ear.

The inner ear contains the vestibular organ with the semi-circular canals, which control our sense of balance, and the cochlea, a coiled cavity about 35 mm long, resembling a snail’s shell. The cochlea is responsible for converting sounds which enter the ear canal, from mechanical vibrations into electrical signals. The mechanical vibrations are transmitted to the oval window of the inner ear via the stapes (stirrup). The conversion process, known as transduction, is performed by specialized sensory cells within the cochlea. The electrical signals, which code the sound’s characteristics, are carried to the brain by the auditory nerve.

The cochlea is divided into three chambers by the basilar membrane. The upper chamber is the scala vestibuli and the bottom chamber is the scala tympani. They are both filled with a clear viscous fluid called perilymph. Between these two chambers is the cochlea duct, which is filled with endolymph.

On the basilar membrane rests the organ of Corti which contains a systematic arrangement of hair cells which pick up the pressure movements along the basilar membrane where different sound frequencies are mapped onto different membrane sites from apex to base.

The hair cells bend in wave-like actions in the fluid and set off nerve impulses which then pass through the auditory nerve to the hearing center of the brain. Short hair cell fibres respond to high frequencies and longer fibres respond to lower frequencies.

Speech Perception

Since the hearing system cannot react to all features present in a sound wave, it is essential to determine what we perceive and how we perceive it. This enormously complex field is referred to as speech perception. Two questions have dominated research:

• Acoustic cues: Does the speech signal contain specific perceptual cues?
• Theories of Speech Perception: How can the process of speech perception be modeled?

A further important issue in speech perception, which is also the province of experimental psychology, is whether it is a continuous or – as often assumed – a categorical process.

Acoustic Cues

The speech signal presents us with far more information than we need in order to recognize what is being said. Yet, our auditory system is able to focus our attention on just the relevant auditory features of the speech signal – features that have come to be known as acoustic cues:

• Voice Onset Time (VOT): the acoustic cue for the voiceless/voiced distinction
• F2-transition : the acoustic cue for place of articulation
• Frequency cues

The importance of these small auditory events has led to the assumption that speech perception is by and large not a continuous process, but rather a phenomenon that can be described as discontinuous or categorical perception .

Voice Onset Time

The voice onset time (VOT) is the point when vocal fold vibration starts relative to the release of a closure, i.e.the interval of voicing prior to a voiced sound. It is crucial for us to discriminate between clusters such as [ pa ] or [ ba ]. It is a well-established fact that a gradual delay of VOT does not lead to a differentiation between voiceless and voiced consonants. Rather, a VOT-value of around 30 msecs serves as the key factor. In other words:

• If VOT is longer than 30 msecs, we hear a voiced sound, such as [ ba ],
• If VOT is shorter than 30 msecs, the perceptual result is [ pa ].

F2 Transition

The formant pattern of vowels in isolation differs enormously from that of vowels embedded in a consonantal context. If a consonant precedes a vowel, e.g. ka/ba/etc, the second formant (F2) seems to emerge from a certain frequency region, the so-called F2-locus. It seems that speech perception is sensitive to the transition of F2 and that F2-transition is an important cue in the perception of speech. In other words, the F2 frequency of the vowel determines whether or not the initial consonant sound is clear.

Frequency Cues

The frequency of certain parts of the sound wave helps to identify a large number of speech sounds. Fricative consonants, such as [s], for example, involve a partial closure of the vocal tract, which produces a turbulence in the air flow and results in a noisy sound without clear formant structure spreading over a broad frequency range. This friction noise is relatively unaffected by the context in which the fricative occurs and may thus serve as a nearly invariant cue for its identification.

However, the value of frequency cues is only relative since the perception of fricatives is also influenced by the fricative’s formant transitions.

Theories of Speech Perception

Speech perception begins with a highly complex, continuously varying, acoustic signal and ends with a representation of the phonological features encoded in that signal. There are two groups of theories that model this process:

• Passive theories: This group views the listener as relatively passive and speech perception as primarily sensory. The message is filtered and mapped directly onto the acoustic-phonetic features of language.
• Active theories: This group views the listener as more active and postulates that speech perception involves some aspects of speech production; the signal is sensed and analysed by reference to how the sounds in the signal are produced.

Passive Theories

Passive theories of speech perception emphasize the sensory side of the perceptual process and relegate the process of speech production to a minor role. They postulate the use of stored neural patterns which may be innate. Two influential passive theories have emerged:

• The Theory of Template Matching Templates are innate recognition devices that are rudimentary at birth and tuned as language is acquired.

• The Feature Detector Theory Feature detectors are specialized neural receptors necessary for the generation of auditory patterns.

Active Theories

Active theories assume that the process of speech perception involves some sort of internal speech production, i.e. the listener applies his articulatory knowledge when he analyzes the incoming signal. In other words: the listener acts not only when he produces speech, but also when he receives it.

Two influential active theories have emerged:

• The Motor Theory of Perception According to the motor theory, reference to your own articulatory knowledge is manifested via direct comparison with articulatory patterns.

• The Analysis-by-Synthesis Theory The analysis-by-synthesis theory postulates that the reference to your own articulation is via neurally generated auditory patterns.

The McGurk Effect

The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception. The illusion occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third sound. The visual information a person gets from seeing a person speak changes the way they hear the sound. If a person is getting poor quality auditory information but good quality visual information, they may be more likely to experience the McGurk effect.

You are invited to participate in a little experiment on perception. In the video below you see a mouth speaking four items. Your tasks are the following:

• Watch the mouth closely, but concentrate on what you hear.
• Now close your eyes. Play the clip again.
• What did you perceive when you saw and heard the video clip? What did you perceive when you just heard the items?

Acoustic Phonetics

Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of the speech signal. This includes the physical characteristics of human speech, such as frequencies, friction noise, etc.

There are numerous factors that complicate the straightforward analysis of the speech signal, for example, background noises, anatomical and physiological differences between speakers etc.

These and other aspects contributing to the overall speech signal are studied under the heading of acoustic phonetics.

Sound Waves

Sound originates from the motion or vibration of a sound source, e.g. from a tuning fork. The result of this vibration is known as a simple sound wave, which can be mathematically modeled as a sine wave. Most sources of sounds produce complex sets of vibrations. They arise from the combination of a number of simple sound waves.

Speech involves the use of complex sound waves because it results from the simultaneous use of many sound sources in the vocal tract.

The vibration of a sound source is normally intensified by the body around it. This intensification is referred to as resonance. Depending on the material and the shape of this body, several resonance frequencies are produced.

Simple sound waves are produced by a simple source, e.g. the vibration of a tuning fork. They are regular in motion and are referred to as periodic. Two properties are central to the measurement of simple sound waves: the frequency and the amplitude.

Practically every sound we hear is not a pure tone but a complex tone; its wave form is not simple but complex. Complex wave forms are synthesized from a sufficient number of simple sound waves. There are two types of complex wave forms:

• periodic complex sound waves
• aperiodic complex sound waves

Speech makes use of both kinds. Vowels, for example, are basically periodic, whereas consonants range from periodic to aperiodic:

• the vowel [ a ], periodic
• the consonant [ n ], periodic
• the consonant [ s ], aperiodic
• the consonant [ t ], aperiodic

The sound wave created by a sound source is referred to as the fundamental frequency or F0 (US: “F zero”).

On a musical instrument, F0 is the result of the vibration of a string or a piece of reed. In speech, it is the result of vocal fold vibration.

In both cases, F0 is a complex sound wave which is filtered (intensified and damped) by numerous parts of the resonating body. The resulting bundles of resonance frequencies or  harmonics  are multiples of F0. They are called  formants  and are numbered F1, F2 and so on.

In speech, these formants can be associated with certain parts of the vocal tract, on a musical instrument they are multiples of F0. For example, on an oboe F0 is the result of the vibration of the reed. This fundamental frequency is intensified (and damped) by the resonating body. As a result, a number of harmonics or formant frequencies are created as multiples of the frequency of F0.

Attributions:

Content adapted from the following:

VLC102 – Speech Science by Jürgen Handke, Peter Franke, Linguistic Engineering Team under CC BY 4.0

“ International Phonetic Alphabet ” licensed under CC BY SA .

“ McGurk Effect ” licensed under CC BY SA .

Introduction to Linguistics by Stephen Politzer-Ahles . CC-BY-4.0 .

More than Words: The Intersection of Language and Culture Copyright © 2022 by Dr. Karen Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Organs of Speech in Communication: Functions and Pedagogical Implications

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Literature and Humanities

literature simplified and made lively

The Organs of Speech

There are a lot of organs which help a person speak with proper pronunciation and clarity. Some organs are helpful in differentiating the sounds through articulation.

They act as the main source of energy for speech. It has small air pockets called alveoles in which oxygen is stored. When the air in the alveolus is pushed up, the displaced air comes up the windpipe (trachea) and reaches the larynx. The air passes through the larynx and reaches pharynx. By adjusting the various parts in the mouth different speech sounds are produced before the lung air goes out into the atmosphere either through the mouth (oral passage) or the nose (nasal passage).

It is the protruding part of the throat commonly called Adam’s apple. It is also known as the soundbox of the body.

Vocal cords

They are two elastic strips placed across the larynx facing each other. They are fixed at one end (far end) and free at the other. In the case of normal breathing, the vocal cords are drawn apart leaving a gap between them through which the air passes freely from the lungs. This gap between the vocal cords is known as glottis. Sometimes while speaking, the vocal cords are brought into contact with each other gently. In this position, the air from the lungs pushes through these vocal cords setting them in vibration. Speech sounds that are produced with the vocal cords vibrating are known as voiced sounds, e.g. /z/. sometimes, speech sounds are produced with the vocal cords, not in contact with each other and hence not vibrating such speech sounds which are known as voiceless sounds. E.g. /s/

Glottal Stop /p/

It happens when the vocal cords are brought into contact with each other rather firmly and thus stopping the air from passing through them.

The two lips are flexible organs of speech. They can combine with each other to produce certain sounds, e.g. /p, b/. sometimes the lower lip can combine with upper front teeth to produce certain sounds, e.g. /f, v/

The Roof of the Mouth

It consists of the upper front teeth, alveolar ridge, palate or hard palate and soft palate.

The upper front teeth are fixed part of speech. The upper front teeth can combine with the lower lip to produce some sounds like /f, v/. they can also combine with the tongue to produce certain sounds like /ð/ as in this, either, θ as in thing, myth .

Alveolar Ridge

It is a hard, bulging, bony part found immediately behind the upper front teeth. This can combine with the tongue to produce certain sounds like /l, t, n/

It is also known as a hard palate.it is the hard-concave part of the roof of the mouth. Sometimes it can combine with the tongue to produce certain sounds, e.g. /j/

Soft Palate

It is soft, loosely hanging, the fleshy part after the hard palate. This can be in 3 positions.

• In between the wall of the mouth and back of the tongue. This is the position of the soft palate in the case of normal breathing. This position is also known as a neutral position. It can be raised sufficiently to be in firm contact with the wall of the mouth.  Then the nasal passage is completely blocked, and all the lung air passes out only through the oral passage (mouth).
• It can also be lowered sufficiently to be in firm contact with the back of the tongue. Thus, the oral passage is completely locked and all the air from the lung passes out only through the nasal passage (nose).
• Certain sounds are produced with soft palate and the tongue combining with each other. E.g. /k, g/. the tip of the soft palate is called vellum.

It is the most flexible part; the prime organ of speech. The tongue is divided into 4 parts namely, the tip, the blade, the front, and the back. The tip of the tongue can move in the direction of the back part of the upper front teeth in the production of certain sounds. / ð, θ/

It can combine with the alveolar ridge to produce certain sounds, /t, s, n/

The front of the tongue can combine with the hard palate to produce certain sounds, /I, i:, j/

The back of the tongue combines with the soft palate to produce certain sounds, /k/.

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The Parts of Human Speech Organs & Their Definitions

Types of Phonetics

Imagine being unable to verbally respond to a verbal greeting. Thinking about the ability to speak as an important part of your day may not cross your mind. If that speech ability was taken away, you might find yourself unable to communicate not only basic speech but also emotional responses like fear, confusion or anxiety. Although you may not give your speech organs much thought, they are integrally tied to how you function. From the lungs to the mouth, the organs of speech and their function in sound production and speech play important roles in many aspects of your life.

Breathing and Speaking Connections

Looking at the speech mechanism and organs of speech begins with the vital lungs. The lungs are located in the chest cavity and expand and contract to push air out of the mouth. Simple airflow is not enough to produce speech. The airflow must be modified by other speech organs to be more than just respiration. When you exhale, air moves out of your lungs through your windpipe or trachea. At the top of the trachea is one of the other primary organs of speech: the larynx or voice box.

Vibrations of the Larynx

Three more parts of the speech mechanism and organs of speech are the larynx, epiglottis and vocal folds. The larynx is covered by a flap of skin called the epiglottis. The epiglottis blocks the trachea to keep food from going into your lungs when you swallow. Across the larynx are two thin bands of tissue called the vocal folds or vocal cords. Depending on how the folds are positioned, air coming through the trachea makes them vibrate and buzz. These vibrations are called a "voiced" or soft sound. Placing finger tips over the Adam's apple or larynx at the front of your neck while humming makes it possible to feel the vocal fold vibration.

Articulators of Speech

The inside of your mouth is also called the oral cavity and controls the shape of words. At the back of the oral cavity on the roof of the mouth is the soft palate or velum. When you pronounce oral sounds, such as "cat" or "bag," the velum is located in the up position to block air flow through the nasal cavity. When you pronounce nasal sounds, such as "can" or "mat," the velum drops down to allow air to pass through the nasal cavity. In front of the velum is the hard palate. Your tongue presses or taps against the hard palate when you pronounce certain words, such as "tiptoe." Developmental or physical issues related to speech organs that are articulators of speech can result in a need for speech therapy.

Teeth, Tongue and Lips

Say "Thank you." Feel how your tongue presses against the inside of your front teeth. The convex area directly behind your teeth is known as the teeth ridge. For the purpose of linguistics, the tongue is divided into three regions: the blade, front and back. The tip of the tongue, which touches the teeth ridge, is called the blade. The middle of the tongue, which lines up with the hard palate, is called the front of the tongue. Finally, beneath the soft palate is the back of the tongue. The final speech organ is the most visible and obvious: the lips. Your lips influence the shape of the sounds leaving the oral cavity. Each of these organs of speech and their definitions is important to the process of speech, articulation and expressions through sounds.

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Carolyn Robbins began writing in 2006. Her work appears on various websites and covers various topics including neuroscience, physiology, nutrition and fitness. Robbins graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biology and theology from Saint Vincent College.

Selected Topics in Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 6

The Functions of Organs of Speech in Communication and Pedagogical Implications for Students Learning and Speaking English as Second Language

• A. J. Saleh
• R. I. Umaru

Selected Topics in Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 6 , 18 September 2021 , Page 162-169 https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/sthss/v6/12839D Published: 2021-09-18

• View Article

The study is to bring to for: (a) The fluency and articulation of speech sounds, (b) To x-ray the different organs of speech and (c) the function of each organ of speech.

Each organ of speech or articulator plays a special and crucial role in the production of speech sounds. These speech sounds ease communication in human beings. The tongue, lips, teeth, lungs, vocal cords, velum, soft and hard palate, larynx, pharynx are important articulators in human communication. This study examined organs of speech or articulators, their functions and pedagogical implications. The different segments of the diagram of the organs of speech have been used to aid the study. The study discovered that the ear functions as an important organ of speech in sound production. The study has also discovered that fluency and articulation are obtained through the study of organs of speech as second language (L2) learners and speakers. The study recommended among many others that teaching of organs of speech at any level of learning be very practical and the use of language laboratory is sina qua non. This is imperative because the study of phonetics and phonology is scientific in nature and has to be proved through listening to native speakers, near – native speakers, role model speakers and transcriptions.

• Organs of speech
• communication
• articulation

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6 Mechanism of Speech Production

Dr. Namrata Rathore Mahanta

Learning outcome:

This module shall introduce the learner to the various components and processes that are at work in the production of human speech. The learner will also be introduced to the application of speech mechanism in other domains such as medical sciences and technology. After reading the module the learner will be able to distinguish speech from other forms of human communication and will be able to describe in detail the stages and processes involved in the production of human speech.

Introduction : What is speech and why it an academic discipline?

Speech is such a common aspect of human existence that its complexity is often  overlooked in day to day life. Speech is the result of many interlinked intricate processes that need to be performed with precision. Speech production is an area of interest not only for language learners, language teachers, and linguists but also people working in varied domains of knowledge. The term ‘speech’ refers to the human ability to articulate thoughts in an audible form. It also refers to the formal one sided discourse delivered by an individual, on a particular topic to be heard by an audience.

The history of human existence and enterprise reveals that ‘speech’ was an empowering act. Heroes and heroines in history used ‘speech’ in clever ways to negotiate structures of power and overcome oppression. At times when the written word was an attribute of the elite and noble classes ‘speech’ was the vehicle which carried popular sentiments. In adverse times ‘speech’ was forbidden or regulated by authority. At such times poets and ordinary people sang their ‘speech’ in double meaning poems in defiance to authority. In present times the debate on an individual’s ‘right to free speech’ is often raised in varied contexts. As an academic discipline Speech Communication gained prominence in the 20th century and is taught in university departments across the globe. Departments of Speech Communication offer courses that engage with the speech interactions between people in public and private domain, in live as well as technologically mediated situations.

However, the student who peruses a study of ‘mechanism of speech production’ needs to focus primarily on the process of speech production. Therefore, the human brain and the physiological processes become the principal areas of investigation and research. Hence in this module ‘speech’ is delimited to the physiological processes which govern the production of different sounds. These include the brain, the respiratory organs, and the organs in our neck and mouth. A thorough understanding of the mechanism of speech production has helped correct speech disorders, simulate speech through machines, and develop devices for people with speech related needs. Needless to say, teachers of languages use this knowledge in the classroom in a variety of ways.

Speech and Language

In everyday parlance the terms ‘speech’ and ‘language’ are often used as synonyms. However, in academic use these two terms refer two very different things. Speech is the ‘spoken’ and ‘heard’ form of language. Language is a complex system of reception and expression of ideas and thoughts in verbal, non-verbal and written forms. Language can exist without speech but speech is meaningless without language. Language can exist in the mind in the form of a thought, on paper/screen in its orthographic form; it can exist in a gesture or  action in its non-verbal form, it can also exist in a certain way of looking, winking or nodding. Thus speech is only a part of the vast entity of language. It is the verbal form of language.

Over the years Linguists have engaged themselves with the way in which speech and language exists within the human beings. They have examined the processes by which language is acquired and learnt. The role of the individual human being, the role of the society/community/the genetic or physiological attributes of the human beings all been investigated from time to time.

Ferdinand de Saussure  a Swiss linguist who laid the foundation for Structuralism declared that language is imbibed by the individual within in a society or community. His lectures delivered at the University of Geneva during 1906-1911 were later collected and published in 1916 as Cours de linguistique générale . Saussure studied the relationship between speech and the evolution of language. He described language as a system of signs which exists in a pattern or structure. Saussure described language using terms such as ‘ langue ’ ‘ parole ’ and ‘langage ’. These terms are complex and cannot be directly translated. It would be misleading to equate Saussure’s ‘ langage ’ with ‘language’. However at an introductory stage these terms can be described as follows:

American linguist Avram Noam Chomsky argued that the human mind contains the innate source of language and declared that humans are born with a mind that is pre-programmed for language, i.e., humans are biologically programmed to use languages. Chomsky named this inherent human trait as ‘Innate Language’. He introduced two other significant terms: ‘Competence’ and ‘Performance’

‘Competence’ was described as the innate knowledge of language and ‘Performance’ as its actual use. Thus the concepts of ‘Innate Language’ ‘Language Competence’ and ‘Language Performance’ emerged and language came to be accepted as a cognitive attribute of humans while speech came to be accepted as one of the many forms of language communication. These ideas can be summarized in the chart given below:

In the present times speech and language are seen as interdependent and complementary attributes of humans. Current research focuses on finding the inner connections between speech and language. Consequently, the term ‘Speech and Language’ is used in most application based areas.

From Theory to Application

It is interesting to note that the knowledge of the intricacies of speech mechanism is used in many real life applications apart from Language and Linguistics. A vibrant area in Speech and Language application is ‘Speech and Language Processing’. It is used in Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Speech Therapy, Speech Recognition and many more areas. It is used to simulate speech in robots. Vocoders and Text to speech function (TTS) also makes use of speech mechanism. In Medical Sciences it is used to design therapy modules for different speech and language disorders, to develop advanced gadgets for persons with auditory needs. In Criminology it is used to recognize speech patterns of individuals and to identify manipulations in recorded speech patterns. Speech processing mechanism is also used in Music and Telecommunication in a major way.

What is Speech Mechanism?

Speech mechanism is a function which starts in the brain, moves through the biological processes of respiration, phonation and articulation to produce sounds. These sounds are received and perceived through biological and neurological processes. The lungs are the primary organs involved in the respiratory stage, the larynx is involved in the phonation stage and the organs in the mouth are involved in the articulatory stage.

The brain plays a very important role in speech. Research on the human brain has led to identification of certain areas that are classically associated with speech. In 1861, French physician Pierre Paul Broca discovered that a particular portion of the frontal lobe governed speech production. This area has been named after him and is known as Broca’s area. Injury to this area is known to cause speech loss. In 1874, German neuropsychiatrist Carl Wernicke discovered that a particular area in the brain was responsible for speech comprehension and remembrance of words and images. At a time when brain was considered to be a single organ, Wernicke demonstrated that the brain did not function as a single organ but as a multi  pronged organ with distinctive functions interconnected with neural networks. His most important contribution was the discovery that brain function was dependent on these neural networks. Today it is widely accepted that areas of the brain that are associated with speech are linked to each other through complex network of neurons and this network is mostly established after birth, through life experience, over a period of time.

It has been observed that chronology and patterning of these neural networks differ from individual to individual and also within the same individual with the passage of time or life experience. The formation of new networks outside the classically identified areas of speech has also been observed in people who have suffered brain injury at birth or through life experience. Although extensive efforts are being made to replicate or simulate the plasticity and creativity of the human brain, complete replication has not been achieved. Consequently, complete simulation of human speech mechanism remains elusive.

 The organs of speech

In order to understand speech mechanism one needs to identify the organs used to produce speech. It is interesting to note that each of these organs has a unique life-function to perform. Their presence in the human body is not for speech production but for other primary bodily functions. In addition to primary physiological functions, these organs participate in the production of speech. Hence speech is said to be the ‘overlaid’ function of these organs. The organs of speech can be classified according to their position and function.

• The respiratory organs consist of: The Lungs and trachea. The lungs compress air and push it up the trachea.
• The phonatory organs consist of the Larynx: The larynx contains two membrane- like structures called vocal cords or vocal folds. The vocal folds can come together or move apart.
• The articulatory organs consist of : lips, teeth, roof of mouth, tongue, oral and nasal cavities

The respiratory process involves the movement of air. Through muscle action of the lungs the air is compressed and pushed up to pass through the respiratory tract- trachea, larynx, pharynx, oral cavity, nasal cavity or both. While breathing in, the rib cage is expanded, the thoracic capacity is enlarged and lung volume is increased. Consequently, the air pressure in lungs drops down and the air is drawn into the lungs. While breathing out, the rib cage is contracted, the thoracic capacity is diminished and lung volume is decreased. Consequently, the air pressure in the lungs exceeds the outside pressure and air is released from the lungs to equalize it. Robert Mannel has explained the process through flowcharts and diagrammatic representations given below:

Once the air enters the pharynx, it can be expelled either through the oral passage, or through the nasal passage or through both depending upon the position of soft movable part of the roof of the mouth known as soft palate or velum.

Egressive and Ingressive Airstream:   If the direction of the airstream is inward, it is termed as ‘Ingressive airstream. If  the direction of the airstream is outward, it is ‘Egressive airstream’. Most languages of the world  make use of Pulmonic Egressive airstream. Ingressive airstream is associated with Scandinavian languages of Northern Europe. However, no language can claim to use exclusively Ingressive or Egressive airstreams. While most languages of the world use predominantly Egressive airstreams, they are also known to use Ingressive airstreams in different situations. For extended list of use of ingressive mechanism you may visit Robert Eklund’s Ingressive Phonation and Speech page at www.ingressive.info .

Egressive process involves outward expulsion of air. Ingressive process involves inward intake of air. Egressive and Ingressive airstreams can be pulmonic (involving lungs) or non-pulmonic (involving other organs).

Non Pulmonic Airstreams: There are many languages which make use of non pulmonic airstream. In these cases the air expelled from the lungs is manipulated either in the pharyngeal cavity, or in the vocal tract, or in the oral cavity. Three major non pulmonic airstreams are:

In Ejectives, the air is trapped and compressed in the pharyngeal cavity by an obstruction in the mouth with simultaneous closure of the glottis. The larynx makes an upward movement which coincides with the removal of the obstruction causing the air to be released.

In Implosives, the air is trapped and compressed in the pharyngeal cavity by an obstruction in the mouth with simultaneous closure of the glottis. The larynx makes a downward movement which coincides with the removal of the obstruction causing the air to be sucked into the vocal tract.

In Clicks, the air is trapped and compressed in the oral cavity by lowering of the soft palate or velum and simultaneous closure of the mouth. Sudden opening causes air to be sucked in making a clicking sound. For a list of languages which use these airstream mechanisms you may visit https://community.dur.ac.uk/daniel.newman/phon10.pdf

While the process of phonation occurs before the airstream enters the oral or nasal cavity, the quality of speech is also determined by the state of the pharynx. Any irregularity in the pharynx leads to modification in speech quality.

The Phonatory Process: Inside the larynx are two membrane-like structures or folds called the vocal cords. The space between these is called the glottis. The vocal folds can be moved to varied distance. Robert Mannel has described five main positions of the vocal folds:

Voiceless: In this position the vocal folds are drawn far apart so that the air stream passes without any interference .

Breathy: Vocal folds are drawn loosely apart. The air passes making whisper like sound Voiced: Vocal folds are drawn close and are stretched. The air passes making vibrating sound.

Creaky : The vocal folds are drawn close & vibrate with maximum tension. Air passes making rough creaky sound. This sound is called ‘vocal fry’ and its use is on the rise amongst urban young women. However its sustained and habitual use is harmful.

For more details on laryngeal positions you may visit Robert Mannel’s page- http://clas.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/airstream_laryngeal/laryngeal.html

You may see a small clip on the vocal fry by visiting the link – http://www.upworthy.com/what-is-vocal-fry-and-why-doesnt-anyone-care-when-men-talk- like-that

The Mouth    The mouth is the major site for articulatory processes of speech production. It contains active articulators that can move and take different positions such as the tongue, the lips, the soft palate. There are passive articulators that cannot move but combine with the active articulators to produce speech. The teeth, the teeth ridge or the alveolar ridge, and the hard palate are the passive articulators.

Amongst the active articulators, the tongue can take the maximum number of positions and combinations to. Being an active muscle, its parts can be lowered or raised. The tongue is a major articulator in the production of vowel sounds. Position of the tongue determines the acoustics in the oral cavity during articulation of vowel sounds. For the purpose of identifying and describing articulatory processes, the tongue has been classified on two parameters.

a.  The part of the tongue that is raised during the articulation process. There are four markers to classify the height to which the tongue is raised

• Maximum height
• Minimum height
• Two third of maximum height
• One third of maximum height

b.  The height to which the tongue is raised during the articulation process. Three main parts of the tongue are identified as Front, Back, and Center.

For the purpose of description the positions of the tongue are diagrammatically represented through the tongue quadrilateral.

• Close:   The Maximum height is called the high position or the close position. This is because the gap between the tongue and the roof of mouth is nearly closed.
• High-Mid  or Half Close : Two third of maximum is called high- mid position or half – close position
• Low-Mid  or Half Open : One third of maximum is called low – mid position or half- open position
• Low or Open : The Minimum height is called the Low or the Open position. This permits the maximum gap between the tongue and the roof of mouth.

The tongue also acts as an active articulator on the roof of the mouth to create obstruction in the oral cavity. Few prominent positions of the tongue are shown below

Lips: The lips are two strong muscles. In speech production the movement of the upper lip is less than that of the lower lip. The lips take different shapes: Rounded, Neutral or Spread

Teeth : The Upper Teeth are Passive Articulators.

The roof of the mouth:

The roof of the mouth has a hard portion and a soft portion which are fused seamlessly. The hard portion comprises of the Alveolar Ridge and the Hard Palate. The soft portion comprises of the Velum and the Uvula. The anterior part of the roof of the mouth is hard and unmovable. It begins from the irregular surface called alveolar ridge which lies behind the upper teeth. The alveolar ridge is followed by the hard palate which extends up to the centre of the tongue. The posterior part of the roof of the mouth is soft and movable. It lies after the hard palate and extends up to the small structure called the uvula.

The soft palate: It is movable and can take different positions during speech production.

• Raised position: In raised position the soft palate rests against the back of the mouth. The nasal passage is fully blocked and air passes through the mouth
• Lowered Position: In lowered position the soft palate rests against the back part of tongue in such a way that the oral passage is fully blocked and air passes through the nasal passage.
• Partially lowered Position: In partially lowered position, the oral as well as the nasal passages are partially open. Pulmonic air passes though the mouth as well as the nose to create ‘nasalized’ sounds.

The hard palate lies between the alveolar ridge and velum. It is a hard and unmovable part of the roof of the mouth. It lies opposite to the centre of the tongue and acts as a passive articulator against the tongue to produce sounds. Sounds produced with the involvement of the hard palate are called palatal sounds.

The alveolar ridge is the wavy part that lies just behind the teeth ridge opposite to the front of the tongue. It acts as a passive articulator against the tongue to produce sounds. Sounds produced with the involvement of the Alveolar ridge are called Alveolar sounds. Some sounds are created with the involvement of the posterior region of the Alveolar ridge. These sounds are called post alveolar sounds. Sometimes sounds are created with the involvement of the hindmost part of the alveolar ridge and the foremost part of the hard palate. Such sounds are called palato alveolar sounds.

Air stream mechanisms involved in speech production

The flow of air or the airstream is manipulated in a number of ways during production of speech. This is done with the movement of the active articulators in the oral cavity or the larynx. In this process the air stream plays a major role in the production of speech sound. Air stream works on the concept of air pressure. If the air pressure inside the mouth is greater than the pressure in the atmosphere, air will escape outward to create a balance. If the air pressure inside the mouth is lower than the pressure outside because of expansion of the oral or pharyngeal cavity, the air will move inward into the mouth to create balance. On the basis of the nature of the obstruction and manner of release, the following classification has been made:

Plosive: In this process there is full closure of the passage followed by sudden release of air. The air is compressed and when the articulators are suddenly removed the air in the mouth escapes with an explosive sound.

Affricate: In this process there is full closure of the passage followed by slow release of air.

Fricative : In this process the closure is not complete. The articulators come together to create a narrow passage. Air is compressed to pass through this narrow stricture so that air escapes with audible friction.

Nasal: The soft palate is lowered so that the oral cavity is closed. Air passes through the nasal passage creating nasal sounds. If the soft palate is partially lowered air passes simultaneously through the oral and nasal passages creating the ‘nasalized’ version of sounds. Lateral: The obstruction in the mouth is such that the air is free to pass on both sides of the obstruction.

Glide: The position of the articulators undergoes change during the articulation process. It begins with the articulators taking one position and then smoothly moving to another position.

Speech mechanism is a complex process unique to humans. It involves the brain, the neural network, the respiratory organs, the larynx, the oral cavity, the nasal cavity and the organs in the mouth. Through speech production humans engage in verbal communication. Since earliest times efforts have been made to comprehend the mechanism of speech. In 1791 Wolfgang von Kempelen made the first speech synthesizer. In the first few decades of the twentieth century scientific inventions such as x-ray, spectrograph, and voice recorders provided new tools for the study of speech mechanism. In the later part of the twentieth century electronic innovations were followed by the digital revolution in technology. These developments have made new revelations and have given new direction to the knowledge of human speech mechanism. In the digital world an understanding of speech mechanism has led to new applications in speech synthesis. Speech mechanism studies in present times are divided into areas of super specialization which focus intensively on any specialized attribute of speech mechanism.

References :

• Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.1965. Cambridge M.A.: MIT Press, 2015.
• Chomsky, Noam. Language and Mind. 3rd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Eklund, Robert. www.ingressive.info. Web. Accessed on 5 March 2017.
• Mannel,Robert. http://clas.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/introduction/respiration.html. Web. Accessed on 5March 2017.
• Mannel,Robert. http://clas.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/introduction/vocaltract_diagram.htm l. Web. Accessed on 5 March 2017.
• Mannel,Robert. http://clas.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/airstream_laryngeal/laryngeal.html. Web. Accessed on 5 March 2017.
• Newman, Daniel. https://community.dur.ac.uk/daniel.newman/phon10.pdf. Web. Accessed on 5 March 2017.
• Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Translated by Wade Baskin. Edited by Perry Meisel and Haun Saussy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
• Wilson, Robert Andrew and Frank C. Keil. Eds. The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Sciences.1999. Cambridge M.A.: MIT Press, 2001.

The Importance Of Speech Organs/functions/location

Speech organs

There are many different forms of communication , although people generally communicate with each other through the use of speech. Speech organs are body structures that work together so that people can communicate through spoken language . Also called speech articulators, these organs are necessary in the production of the voice , or the sound produced only by humans to tell each other how they think or feel. They can be classified according to whether they are active or passive.

Unlike most animals that have the ability to communicate non-verbally, most humans produce different words to communicate with each other. The speech is delivered with great speed; Usually, a person who wants to talk doesn’t need to think too hard about what to say. When a person speaks, his thoughts are immediately converted into a spoken form as soon as the speech organs receive a signal or instruction from the brain. Thus, speech occurs when a person’s brain and speech organs work together, although the organs of the respiratory system also play an important role in this process, since the vocal cords need air to vibrate and produce sound.

A speech organ is active if it moves as sound is produced, while it is passive if there is no movement. Along with the lips, tongue, and teeth, these organs also include the alveolar crest, uvula, palate, and glottis. Of these speech articulators, only the lower lip, tongue, and glottis are active. The mechanism of sound or voice production begins when incoming air flows through the glottis, resulting in vibration of the vocal cords. This vibration pushes air to flow through the glottis to vibrate the vocal tract, producing sound.

Articulatory phonetics deals with how the organs of speech work together. For example, the interaction between the lips and the teeth can produce different sounds. Vowels are produced when the shape of the mouth changes through coordination between the upper and lower lips, although the position of the tongue is also important. Consonants are produced by coordination between the tongue, teeth, and palate.

The speech organs are also prone to stress , called vocal load, due to various factors. Continuous use of the voice , speaking loudly for a long time, and speaking with an unusual tone of voice can cause stress on the speech organs. Smoking and dehydration can cause dryness in the throat area, affecting voice quality. Vocal load can be avoided by minimizing the use of the voice , speaking at a normal volume and tone of voice, avoiding smoking, and drinking plenty of fluids.

Parts of the speech apparatus

The phonetic apparatus consists of three groups of organs.

Breathing organs The Importance Of Speech Organs

The lungs are the largest organs of the human body and their main function is to allow inspiration and expiration of air . They are formed by connective tissue inside which are the bronchial tubes, which progressively branch off from the trachea. The Importance Of Speech Organs

The bronchi are the ducts that arise from the bifurcation of the trachea . Each of the bronchi is connected to one of the lungs. The air enters through the trachea and reaches the lungs through the bronchi, so that its role is very important.

The trachea is one of the most important elements of the respiratory system. It is the tube that connects the nose and mouth with the lungs and bronchi . It is shaped like a tube and consists of a set of cartilaginous rings. It begins in the larynx and runs to the chest.

Phonation organs The Importance Of Speech Organs

The larynx is a tubular organ formed by a total of six cartilage . Connect the pharynx with the trachea. This is the organ of phonation because the vocal cords are located in the larynx.

Vocal chords

The vocal cords are the element of the phonological apparatus responsible for the production of the voice . Despite their name, the truth is that they have no rope shape, but are a set of folds. They are a total of four, divided into two large groups: true and false . The false ones do not participate in the production of sounds, while the true ones do. The Importance Of Speech Organs

The resonators are responsible for the vibrations that come from the vocal cords become sound.

Articulation organs

Palate the importance of speech organs.

The palate is the upper wall of the oral cavity . It is divided into two parts: the bone palate and the veil of the palate. Its main function is to separate the oral cavity from the nostrils and its interaction with the tongue allows the articulation of sounds.

The tongue is a mobile organ that is inside the mouth. It has a key role in numerous functions, such as mouth hydration , swallowing or language , among others. It is characterized by its cone shape.

In the case of adults, they have a total of 32 teeth : 8 incisors, 4 canines, 8 premolars and 12 molars. It is interesting to know that not all adults have wisdom teeth since there is not always enough room for growth. The Importance Of Speech Organs

Lips The Importance Of Speech Organs

The lips are essential to carry out a large selection of functions, such as sucking or kissing, among others.

The glottis is the narrowest part of what is called laryngeal light , a space limited by the vocal cords. Before the vibration of the vocal cords, the sound is transformed into voice or loudness. Thus, when they do not vibrate what is called dull sound is produced. The Importance Of Speech Organs

The Importance Of Speech Organs

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August 19, 2019

Variation in the shape of speech organs influences language evolution

by Max Planck Society

Why do languages sound so different when people across the world have roughly the same speech organs (mouth, lips, tongue and jaw)? Does the shape of our vocal tract explain some of the variation in speech sounds? In extreme individual cases, it clearly does: When children are born with a cleft palate, the roof of the mouth is not formed properly, which affects their speech. However, it is unclear whether subtle anatomical differences between normal speakers play a role.

Language and speech are also shaped by repeated use and transmission from parents to children. As language is passed on to new generations, small differences may sometimes be amplified. This observation led a team based at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, to ask what happens when tiny differences in vocal tract anatomy meet cultural transmission.

The team decided to focus on whether the shape of the hard palate might influence the way vowels are learned, articulated and passed on across generations of artificial agents. Because changing the shape of the hard palate in human participants is ethically and practically problematic, the scientists opted for a computational study, adapting an existing computer model of the vocal tract.

The team imported actual hard palate shapes from more than 100 MRI scans of human participants into the computer model. Via machine learning, they trained agents to articulate five common vowels, such as the 'ee' sound in "beet" and the 'oo' sound in "boot." Next, a second generation tried to learn these particular vowels, which were then passed on to the next generation, and so on for 50 generations.

"This simulates a simple model of language change and evolution in a computer," explains co-author Rick Janssen, currently machine learning specialist at ALTEN and Philips Research in the Netherlands. Would subtle anatomical differences in palate shape lead to differences in pronunciation? And crucially, would these differences become more pronounced through repeated transmission?

Biology matters

The subtle differences in the shape of the hard palate did influence how accurately the five vowels were articulated. Importantly, the cultural transmission of speech sounds across generations amplified these small differences, even though the agents actively tried to compensate for their hard palate shape by using other articulators (such as the tongue). "Even small variations in the shape of our vocal tract may affect the way we speak, and this may even be amplified—across generations—to the level of differences between dialects and languages. Thus, biology matters," explains the lead author, Dan Dediu, currently at the Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage, Université Lumière Lyon 2 in France.

According to the authors, this result may also help researchers to better understand the effects of anatomical variation on speech and how to correct it when desired, for instance, in case of speech pathology, forensic linguistics, dentistry and post-surgery recovery. But most importantly, the study highlights the importance of individual variation in speech and language in the context of our universal similarities: Co-author Scott Moisik, currently at the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, concludes: "While we are all humans and fundamentally the same, we are also unique individuals, and one can really hear it."

The study is published in Nature Human Behaviour .

Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour

Provided by Max Planck Society

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