The Speech Sounds

The Speech Sounds

It's separated by

The description of Speech Sounds

The production of Speech Sounds

It is

All sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. These different parts are called Articulators.

The articulators are

The pharynx

Is a long tube begins just above the Larynx also, it's divided into two part being the back of the oral cavity and the other is in the way through the nasal cavity.

Velum

The hard palate

Is often the "Roof of the mouth". We can feel its smooth curved surface with our tongue.

A consonant made with the tongue close the hard palate is called palatal.

The sound J in "yes" is palatal

The alveolar ridge

Is between the top front teeth and the hard palate.

Sound madre with tongue touching here (such as t,d,n) are called alveolar.

The teeth

The tongue

Is a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different places and different shapes.

The tongue on a large scale is divided in: Tip, blade,front,back and root.

At the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips.

Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth, such as English θ and ð are called dental

It is

A purely phonetic features

The relevant features are

Loudness

Pitch

It's related to the breadth or amplitude, of the vibration of the vocal folds

The vocal folds are located behind the Adam's apple in the voice box, also called the larynx, at the top of the windpipe or trachea

The greater the amplitude of the vibration, the louder the sound.

It's a suprasegmental feature or prosodic feature

Can distinguish meaning: It's one component of stress

The distinction between the noun record and the verb record

It's therefore not a distinctive feature

It's related to the frequency of the vibration of the vocal folds

It's a component of stress, and it shapes the intonation of connected speech

a change of pitch can change the function of a sound

Tone Languages

English belong to the non-tone languages

Many Asian and native American languages have it, more than 1.000 tone languages in Africa alone.

Air-stream mechanism

Duration and length

The lips

Rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like u

Brought into contact with the teeth (as in f and v)

They can be pressed together (produce the sounds p and b)

Glottis

Tone of voice

Also called voice quality, tonal quality or timbre

refers to the difference in "colour" that we hear between two voices or two instruments

The different tones of voice are produced by different patterns of vibration of the vocal folds

Make us characterise the voice of a speaker as female feminine, male, masculine, harsh, breathy, murmured, creaky or thin

By contrast, some linguists call it a paralinguistic feature.

Duration

Length

Is used for the absolute or actual time taken in the articulation of a sound.

Both refer to the span of time during which a sound is sustained

It refers to the relative time a sound is sustained as perceived by the listener.

The difference in length can distinguish meaning, or at least it can help to distinguish meaning.

All speech sounds are made with some movement of air

The air is pushed up from the lungs through the windpipe and leaves the body through the mouth and sometimes through the nose (egressive pulmonar air)

Is the space between the vocal folds, located behind the Adam's Apple in the voice box, or larynx.

If the glottis is narrow, i.e. if the vocal folds are together, the air-stream forces its way through and causes the vocal folds to vibrate.

If the glottis is open i.e. if the vocal folds are apart, the air passes through without causing the vocal folds to vibrate.

Sounds produced in this way are called voiceless

The glottis is closed, i.e. the vocal folds are firmly pressed together, and the air-stream is stopped completely.

Such a glottal closure can produce only one sound, which is called glottal stop or glottal plosive.

Sounds produced in this way are called voiced.

The soft palate

It's one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue.

When we make the sounds K and G are a velar consonants.

Diaphragm

Allows air to pass through the nose and mouth

Bilabial

Labiodental