Unit Two The Organs of speech

The Organs of Speech Introduction: To understand the nature of speech sounds and how we produce them, it is necessary in the first place to identify the organs involved in the articulation of these sounds at a very basic level. Speech starts out as air-stream which is initiated by the lungs and then travels up through various organs in our body before it is converted into speech.

The Organs of speech The organs of speech and their speech functions can be described under three headings: The Respiratory System: The respiratory system (initiation process) comprises the lungs, the muscles of the chest and the windpipe. The role of the respiratory system in relation to the production of speech sounds is that the out flowing air stream initiated by the lungs is used for speech production.

The Organs of Speech 2. The Phonatory System: This system comprises the larynx and the vocal cords. The air-stream released by the lungs, and comes up through the windpipe. The main types of the phonatory system: The larynx: الحنجرة The larynx is positioned at the top of the windpipe, and is commonly known as the voice box. What makes the larynx an important speech organ is that it houses the vocal cords.

2. The Phonatory System: b. The vocal cords: الحبال الصوتية They are two thick flaps of muscle or like a pair of lips. The space between the vocal cords is called the glottis. There are four states of the vocal cords: Wide apart: This is the normal position for breathing and usually during the production of voiceless sounds like [p, t, k, s, f…].

2. The Phonatory System: 2. Narrow glottis: When air flows through narrow glottis, the result is ‘h’ sound. 3. Tightly closed: When the vocal cords are drawn firmly together, no air passes through them. It is called a glottal stop, and it resembles a gentle cough.

2. The Phonatory System: 4. Position for vocal cords: When the edges of the vocal cords are touching each other, they vibrate when the air passes from the lungs. The sounds produced when the vocal cords vibrate are called voiced sounds. Whereas sounds produced with no vibration are called voiceless sounds. Example, fat and vat. The sound f is voiceless and the sound v is voiced.

3. The Articulatory System: Having passed through the larynx, the pulmonic egressive air-stream move into the pharynx then it passes through the vocal tracts, which ends at the mouth before it escapes into the atmosphere. The parts of the vocal tracts are: The pharynx: بلعوم The pharynx extends from the top of the larynx to the furthest part of the tongue. It is divided into two parts, one part leads to the

3. The Articulatory System: Mouth and the other leads to the nasal cavity. The air-stream from the lungs either passes through the mouth or the nose.

3. The Articulatory System: b. The soft palate or velum: سقف الفم the soft palate is a mobile articulator which can be raised or lowered. This affects the direction of the air-stream flowing from the lungs in one of three ways: if the soft palate is raised, it presses the pharynx, shuts of the nasal cavity and forces the air-stream to go only through the mouth. The sounds produced in this way are called oral sounds.

3. The Articulatory System: if the soft palate is lowered, the passage into the nose is opened, and the air will escape only through the nose. Sounds produced in this way are called nasal sounds. if the soft palate is lowered, and the oral and the nasal cavities are opened, the air from the lungs will escape through the nose and the mouth. Sounds produced in such way are termed nasalised sounds.

3. The Articulatory System:

3. The Articulatory System c. The hard palate: سقف الفم او الحنك الثابت It is a hard, bony and concave structure, which lies between the soft palate and the alveolar ridge. The hard palate is fixed position, and it is involved in sound production when another organ moves towards it.

3. The Articulatory System d. The alveolar ridge: It is the part of the mouth lying immediately behind the front upper teeth. e. The tongue: اللسان it is the most important of the organs of speech, because it can take up different positions and is capable of assuming a large number of shapes. The main types of the tongue are: tip, the blade, the front, the back and the rims.

3. The Articulatory System f. The teeth: الاسنان The upper front teeth are used in producing some speech sounds. g. The lips: الشفتين Both, the upper and the lower lips play their part in the production of certain sounds. The lips can take up various different positions. They can be round, spread and neutral.

3. The Articulatory System h. The jaws: الفكين The jaws are sometimes called articulators. But the jaws are not directly involved in the production of speech sounds, because they can not themselves make contact with other articulator. We move the lower jaw a lot during the production of certain sounds.

3. The Articulatory System