Speech organs, or articulators, produce the sounds of language. Organs used for speech include the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), uvula, glottis and various parts of the tongue. They can be divided into two types: passive articulators and active articulators. Active articulators move relative to passive articulators, which remain still, to produce various speech sounds, in particular manners of articulation. The upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, and pharynx wall are passive articulators. The most important active articulator is the tongue as it is involved in the production of the majority of sounds. The lower lip is another active articulator. The glottis is not an active articulator because it is only a space between vocal folds.
The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech. Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures. Generally, articulatory phonetics is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energy into acoustic energy. Aerodynamic energy refers to the airflow through the vocal tract. Its potential form is air pressure; its kinetic form is the actual dynamic airflow. Acoustic energy is variation in the air pressure that can be represented as sound waves, which are then perceived by the human auditory system as sound.[1]
Sound is produced simply by expelling air from the lungs. However, to vary the sound quality in a way useful for speaking, two speech organs normally move towards each other to contact each other to create an obstruction that shapes the air in a particular fashion. The point of maximum obstruction is called the place of articulation, and the way the obstruction forms and releases is the manner of articulation. For example, when making a p sound, the lips come together tightly, blocking the air momentarily and causing a buildup of air pressure. The lips then release suddenly, causing a burst of sound. The place of articulation of this sound is therefore called bilabial, and the manner is called stop (also known as a plosive).
Places of articulation[edit]
Main article: Place of articulation
Places of articulation (passive & active): 1. Exolabial, 2. Endo-labial, 3. Dental 4. Alveolar 5. Post-alveolar, 6. Pre-palatal, 7. Palatal, 8. Velar, 9. Uvular, 10. Pharyngeal, 11. Glottal, 12. Epiglottal, 13. Radical, 14. Postero-dorsal, 15. Antero-dorsal, 16. Laminal, 17. Apical, 18. Sub-apical
An obstruction is necessarily formed when two articulators come close together. Generally, one is moving (the active articulator), and the other is stationary (the passive articulator). As a result, what is normally termed the “place of articulation” is actually a combination of a place of active articulation and a place of passive articulation. For example, the English f sound is labiodental—a shorthand way of saying that the active articulator is the lower lip, which moves up (along with the jaw in general) to contact the upper teeth. The lower lip can also be the active articulator for other places of articulation (e.g. bilabial, where it contacts the upper lip, as in English p). Likewise, the upper teeth can be the passive articulator for other places of articulation (e.g. dental, where the tongue contacts the upper teeth, as in the English th sound).
The places of articulation used in English are:
Bilabial
Bilabial sounds are produced with both lips, such as [b], [m], and [p].
Labiodental
[f] and [v] are articulated by placing the upper teeth against the lower lip.
Interdental or Dental
[θ] and [ð] are both spelled as “th” (θ as in think) (ð as in the). They are pronounced by inserting the tip of the tongue between the teeth.
Alveolar
[t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r] are produced in many ways where the tongue is raised towards the alveolar ridge.
[t, d, n] the tip of the tongue is raised and touches the ridge.
[s, z] the sides of the front of the tongue are raised, but the tip is lowered so that air escapes over it.
[l] the tip of the tongue is raised while the rest of the tongue remains down, permitting air to escape over its sides. Hence, [l] is called a lateral sound (âm biên).
[r] [IPA ɹ] curl the tip of tongue back behind the alveolar ridge, or bunch up the top of the tongue behind the ridge, the air escapes through the central part of the mouth.
Palatal
[ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ] [j] are produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate.
Velar
[k] [ɡ] [ŋ] are produced by raising the back part of the tongue to the soft palate or the velum.
Uvular
[ʀ] [q] [ԍ] these sounds are produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula. The ‘r’ in French and German may be an uvular trill (symbolized by [ʀ]). The uvular sounds [q] and [ԍ] occur in Arabic. These do not normally occur in English.
Glottal
[h] [ʔ] the sound [h] is from the flow of air coming from an open glottis, past the tongue and lips as they prepare to pronounce a vowel sound, which always follows [h]. if the air is stopped completely at the glottis by tightly closed vocal cords the sound upon release of the cords is called a glottal stop [ʔ].
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