The Production of Speech Sounds

MODULE I THE SPEECH ORGANS

ENGLISH CONSONANT PHONEMES

The Speech Organs (Articulators) and Their Functions

The Production of Speech Sounds

All the sounds we make are the result of muscles contracting. The air from the lungs passes into the wind-pipe, then into the larynx where the vocal cords are located and then goes through the vocal tract different parts of which are called articulators or speech organs.

Voice is produced when the airflow forced between the vocal cords brings them together and makes them vibrate. When the vocal cords are wide apart and do not vibrate the airflow escapes easily and no voice is produced.

The diagram shows the speech organs that we use in the production of different speech sounds.

Fig.1 The Speech Organs larynx

The speech organs are divided into active (movable) and passive (fixed).

Active Speech Organs	Passive Speech Organs
the vocal cords (in the larynx)	the hard palate
the tongue	the alveolar ridge
the lips	the teeth

the soft palate

The Palate (the roof of the mouth)	The Tongue
the soft palate (the velum) with the uvula	the back part
the hard palate	the front part
the alveolar ridge	the blade with the tip

When the soft palate is raised the air escapes through the mouth cavity; when it is lowered the air escapes through the nasal cavity.

In the process of articulation, i.e. production of speech sounds, active and passive speech organs come into contact.

Speech sounds are divided into vowels and consonants. Vowels are voiced speech sounds produced in the mouth cavity with no obstruction to the airflow. Consonants are produced with a complete or an incomplete obstruction to the airflow. They can be voiced and voiceless.

A complete obstruction is formed when two speech organs come in contact and thus block the air-passage through the mouth. An incomplete obstruction is formed when an active speech organ is held so close to a passive speech organ that the air-passage gets narrowed, or constricted but is not blocked.

One should discriminate speech sounds from phonemes. The phoneme is the smallest language unit which has a set of distinctive features and helps to make words and their forms. Sounds are realizations of phonemes in speech. Thus there are 20 vowel phonemes and 24 consonant phonemes in English.