SPEECH PRODUCTION

Most of the speech sounds are the result of movements of the tongue and the lips and
the result of muscles contracting. Producing any sound requires energy. In nearly all speech
sounds, the basic source of power is the respiratory system, the muscles in the chest that we
use for breathing, pushing air out of the lungs while producing a noise in the throat or mouth.
When talking, air from the lungs goes up the windpipe (the trachea, to use the more technical
term) and into the larynx, at which point it must pass between two small muscular folds
called the vocal folds. If the vocal folds are apart (as yours probably are right now while you
are breathing in and out), the air from the lungs will have a relatively free passage into the
pharynx and the mouth. But if the vocal folds are adjusted so that there is only a narrow
passage between them, the airstream from the lungs will set them vibrating.
Sounds produced when the vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as opposed
to those in which the vocal folds are apart, which are said to be voiceless. The difference
between voiced and voiceless sounds is often important in distinguishing sounds. In each of
the pairs of words fat, vat; thigh, thy; Sue, zoo, the first consonant in the first word of each
pair is voiceless; in the second word, it is voiced.
After passing through the larynx, the air goes to what is known as the vocal tract,
which ends at the mouth and nostrils. The shape of the vocal tract is very important factor in
the production of speech. The vocal tract can be seen in the figure below.

Note that the air passages that make up the vocal tract may be divided into the oral tract,
within the mouth and pharynx, and the nasal tract, within the nose. When the flap at the back
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of the mouth is lowered (as it probably is for you now, if you are breathing with your mouth
shut), air goes in and out through the nose. Speech sounds such as /m/ and /n/ are produced
with the vocal folds vibrating and air going out through nose. The upper limit of the nasal
tract has been marked with a dotted line since the exact boundaries of the air passages within
the nose depend on soft tissues of variable size.
The parts of the vocal tract that can be used to form sounds, such as the tongue and
the lips, are called articulators. Below is the figure that shows the four main components of
speech production mechanism as a whole the airstream process, the phonation process, the
oro-nasal process and the articulatory process.

The airstream process includes all the ways of pushing air out that provide the power for
speech. The respiratory system includes the lungs pushing air out, as the prime mover in this
process. The phonation process is the name given to the actions of the vocal folds. Only two
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possibilities have been mentioned: voiced sounds in which the vocal folds are vibrating and
voiceless sounds in which they are apart. The possibility of the airstream going out through
the mouth, as in /v/ or /z/, or the nose, as in /m/ and /n/, is determined by the oro-nasal
process. The movements of the tongue and lips interacting with the roof of the moth and the
pharynx are part of the articulatory process.
To a certain extent we can learn to use our speech organs in new ways in order to
produce learnt sounds in a foreign language, or to lose sounds from our own language which
are not appropriate in the foreign language. Below is the diagram that shows the location of
the main areas of the head and neck associated with the production of sounds.

The diagram above shows the location of the main areas of the head and neck
associated with the production of sounds. In the human larynx, there are two flaps of elastic,
connective tissue known as vocal cords, which can open and close. During normal breathing,
and also in production of unvoiced sounds, the cords are open. When the edges of the vocal
cords come close together, the air which passes between them makes them vibrate, resulting
in voicing. The pitch of the sound (how high or low) is controlled by muscles which slacken
and lengthen the cords for low tones, and shorten the cords, pulling them taut, for highpitched sounds.
We speak using the lips, tongue, teeth, hard and soft palates and alveolar ridge. The
nasal cavity comes into play for certain sounds, and the movement of the lower jaw is also
important. Articulation happens when the mainstream is interrupted, shaped, restricted or
diverted.
1. The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in
women and about 8 cm in men, and at its top end it is divided into two, one part
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being the back of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through
the nasal cavity. If you look in a mirror with your mouth open, you can see the
back of the pharynx.
2. The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass
through the nose and through the mouth. Yours is probably in that position now,
but often in speech it is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. The
other important thing about the velum is that it is one of the articulators that can
be touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds /k/ and /g/ the tongue is in
contact with the lower side of the velum, and we can these velar consonants.
3. The hard palate is often called the roof of the mouth. You can feel its smooth
curved surface with your tongue.
4. The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel
its shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher that it feels, and is
covered with little ridges. You can only see these if you have a mirror small
enough to go inside your mouth (such as those used by dentists). Sounds made
with the tongue touching here (such as /t/ and /d/) are called alveolar.
5. The tongue is a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different
places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into different parts,
though there are no clear dividing lines within the tongue. The figure below shoes
the tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown: tip, blade, front, back and
root.

6. The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown only at the front of the mouth,
immediately behind the lips. The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for
many speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are
called dental.
7. The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce
the sounds /p/, /b/), brought into contact with the teeth (as in /f/, /v/), or rounded to
produce the lip-shape for vowels like /u/. Sounds in which the lips are in contact

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with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called
labiodental.
Besides the seven articulators described above, there are three other things to remember.
Firstly, the larynx that is a very complex and independent one. Secondly, the jaws. Although
the jaws are not articulators, but they cannot themselves make contact with other articulators
and we move the lower jaw a lot in speaking. Finally, the nose and the nasal cavity which are
a very important part of our equipment for making sounds, particularly nasal consonants such
as /m/, /n/.
Vowel and Consonant
The vowels are sound in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the
larynx to the lips. On the other hand, in making certain sound which can be clearly felt that
we are making it difficult or impossible for the air to pass through the mouth, most people
would have no doubt that such sounds should be called consonants.
The vowel-consonant distinction can be seen through the distribution of the sound in the
beginning and end of English words, which has shown that two groups identified are of with
quite different patterns of distribution.

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