1. Physiology of Articulation
Ch. 7

2. Articulation The process of joining two elements together
Articulatory system is the system of mobile and immobile articulators brought into contact for the purpose of shaping the sounds of speech
What happens to the sound after it reaches the oral cavity
Sounds=phonemes

3. Source Filter Theory of Vowel Production
Voice is generated by the vocal folds and routed through the vocal tract where it is shaped into the sounds of speech
Changes in the shape and configuration of the tongue, mandible, soft palate and other articulators govern the resonance characteristics of the vocal tract, and the resonances of the tract determine the sound of a given vowel.

4. Resonant frequency
When you move your tongue around in your mouth, you are changing the shape of your oral cavity, making it smaller or larger, lengthening or shortening.
Change the shape of the oral cavity= change the resonant frequency=change the sound that comes out of the mouth
Vowels- source will always be phonation
Consonants- sources will include turbulence of frication or combination of voicing and turbulence

7. Resonant frequency Say the words “he” and “who”
Share with your partner what is happening with your tongue, mandible, lips when you say each of these words.

8. Production of /s/ , /sh/
Share with your friend the placement of your tongue for an /s/ sound and how it changes for the /sh/ sound Be prepared to share

9. Speech Function
Speech production requires execution of an extremely well-organized and integrated sequence of neuromotor events
Say the word “Tube”
Tongue elevates to alveolar ridge while simultaneously elevating and tensing the velum
Air pressure builds up behind the tongue
Tongue actively drops to release the pressure and produce the /t/
As it releases it quickly retracts to produce the /u/ assisted by the rounding of your lips
Lips then close tightly with buildup of air pressure for the final /b/
All of this happens in less than 3/10 of a second and we don’t even think about it

10. Lips
Lower lip achieves a greater velocity and force than the upper lip and seems to do most of the work in lip closure
The extra force is due to the mentalis muscle
Lower lip is attached to a movable articulator- the mandible
Lower lip is capable of rapidly altering its rate of closure
Lips are amazingly resistant to interference- they adjust and accommodate to physical restraints
Experiment on bottom of p. 378 with tongue depressors

11. Mandible A helper Assists the lips
Changes position for tongue movement
Tightly closes when necessary
Supportive role of carrying the lips, tongue, and teeth to their targets in the maxilla
Adjustments are rather small
Muscles of mandibular elevation are endowed with muscle spindles- reflexes within the jaw
Very important for mastication- mandible elevates, grinds laterally and then depresses in a rhythmic fashion
For speech- mandible elevates and depresses with slight modifications, quick adjustments

12. Tongue It is the most important of the articulators
Involved in the production of the majority of the phonemes
Tongue tip elevation /t/, /d/
Tongue tip depression /k/, /g/
Tongue tip deviation, left and right
Lateral margins relaxation /l/
Tongue narrowing
Central tongue grooving
Retraction
Protrusion
Posterior Tongue elevation /k/
Tongue body depression

13. Velum Closed for non-nasal speech Open for nasal sounds /n/, /m/, /ng/
Opens and closes in coordination with other articulators avoiding the effect of nasal resonance on other phonemes
Production of high pressure consonants requires greater velopharyngeal effort- superior pharyngeal constrictor and uvular muscles assist /v/, /d/, /b/
Hard and soft palate are richly endowed with receptors that provide feedback concerning pressure and they facilitate or inhibit motor lingual activity

14. Articulatory Development
The development of articulation is a hierarchy and based on motor control
The infant must balance muscle tone before being able to sit
He must sit before he can establish independent head and neck control
With the control of the neck muscles comes freedom to move the mandible and tongue independently
Starts with babbling where they just have to open and close the mouth /m/,/b/, /p/ and vowels
Progressively increases ability to articulate more difficult sounds /s/, /z/, /th/.

15. Vocal Tract Development
Infant size 6-8 cm from lips to vocal folds
Adult size cm from lips to vocal folds
As the infant grows
The nasopharynx enlarges and becomes more sharply angled
Oral and pharyngeal cavities grow
Tongue descends
Oropharyngeal space increases
Length and depth of mandible increases to accommodate the tongue
Reaches adult oral cavity size by age of 7-18 years.

16. Coordinated Articulation
Speech is the most complex sequential motor task performed by humans
Conceptual System
We must first develop the idea to be expressed
The idea represents the sentence to be spoken
The idea must be mapped into a syntactical system, establish language forms acceptable to match the concept
“Tomorrow is Monday” is an idea that is chosen and the words have been chosen to fit the syntax
Phonological System
Phonological rules are applied to establish the correct phoneme combinations to meet the needs of the words
“Tomorrow is Monday” is further broken down into syllables, phonemes and features of the phonemes
/T/ is a lingua-alveolar stop, voiceless sound

17. Coordinated Articulation
Muscle Movement system
Muscles are activated to meet the needs of the feature selection process
/T/ now becomes movement of the muscles of the tongue that will produce the lingua alveolar gesture (superior longitudinal and genioglossus muscles)
Coarticulation: Overlapping effect of one articulatory pattern on another

18. Coarticulation in running speech
Overlapping effect of one articulatory gesture on another
/see/ and /sue/ lips are retracted and lips are rounded