The Organs of the Speech

★ Introduction:-

                         Linguistic is a systematic study of language. Phonetic is a branch of linguistic and it is the branch dealing with the medium of speech. It deals with the  production, transmission and reception of the sounds of human speech. For the speech sounds, various organs of our body works. It is called "Organs of Speech"

                        "The air that we breath out comes out of the lungs. Before it gets into outer atmosphere, various organs in our body convert it into speech sound. These are called as the Organ of the speech."

                All the organs of speech not only work for the production of speech, but also do the other work as well. The lungs, the vocal cords, the tongue, the teeth and the lips are some of the organs that described commonly in phonetic as a organs of speech. The lungs are necessary for breathing, the vocal cords shut tightly and thus prevent food from entering the windpipe, the tongue is used for differentiating tastes, the tooth are used for chewing food and so on. 

    

               The organs of speech can be divided into three groups:-

1. The Respiratory system
2. The Phonatory system
3. The Articulatory system

 ★1. The Respiratory system:-          

             The Respiratory system contains the Lungs, the Muscles of the chest and the Windpipe (Trachea). 

Click here to read about the Respiratory System

★2. The Phonatory system:-

         The Phonatory system contains the Larynx.

                   

       The Larynx is called "Adam's Apple", situated at the top of the windpipe. The air from the lungs has to come out through the windpipe and the larynx. In the larynx, are situated two lip like structure, called the vocal cords. These are placed horizontally from the front to back. They are attached in front and can be separated at the back.

       The vocal cords can be opened and closed and when two cords come very close to each other, the glottis will be shut completely. In fact when we swallow food or water, the vocal cords shut the glottis and thus prevents food or water from entering the windpipe.

             When we breath in and out, the vocal cords are drawn wide and thus the glottis is open. The air enters the lungs or gets out of the lungs through the wide open glottis. When we produce some speech sounds, the vocal cords are wide apart and the glottis is open. Such sounds produced with wide-open glottis are called "Voiceless sounds or Breathed sounds". The first sound in the english words Peel, Ten, Keen, Chin, Fine, Thin, Shine and Hat are voiceless sounds.

                During the production of certain speech sounds, the vocal cords are loosely held together and pressure of the air from lungs makes them open and close rapidly. This is called Vibration of the vocal cords. When the sound produced when vocal cords vibrate are called "Voiced sounds".  All the sounds in the english words Bead, Deed, Girl, Judge, Vine, Then, Zoo, Measure, Need, Wing, Red, Yard and Well are Voiced sounds.

               The vibration of vocal cords is important for another factor, too. The rate at which the vocal cords vibrate is called "Frequency of vibration of vocal cords" and this determines the Pitch of the voice.

 

             We can decide whether the sound is voiced or voiceless by having one or two simple experiments. If we produce a sound and place our fingers lightly on the Adam's Apple, during its production our fingers feel the vibration of vocal cords, the sound produced is voiced sound. If the produced is voiceless, our fingers will feel nothing.

For instance; 

                If we produce a prolonged SSSSS (prolonged hissing sound) with our fingers on Adam's apple. Then if we say prolonged ZZZZZ (prolonged buzzing sound), during the production of ZZZZZ, our fingers will feel vibration of vocal cords. They will feel no such thing during the production of SSSSS. The hissing sound is voiceless and the buzzing sound is voiced. 

★3. The Articulatory System:-

                           

              The Articulatory system comprises the teeth ridge, the hard palate, the soft palate and uvula.

            

              The convex body part of the roof of the mouth which is lies immediately behind the upper front teeth is called the Teeth ridge. It is also called the Alveolar ridge or Alveolum. Immediately after the teeth ridge, the roof of mouth becomes concave and it is hard and bony. This bony concave surface is called the Hard-palate. The roof of mouth then suddenly becomes soft and fleshy. This is called the Soft-palate or the Velum. The fleshy structure hanging loose at the extreme end of the roof of the mouth, which is called the Uvula.

         

★ Oral sounds:-

                    The soft palate acts like a valve in opening and closing nasal passage of air. If the soft palate is raised therefore it touches the back wall of pharynx, thus the nasal passage of air is completely blocked. The air than can't escape through the nose. During production of the sounds, if the air escape through the mouth are called Oral sounds. All the sounds in English words Peel, Bag, Saw, Date and Bush are oral sounds. The closure of nasal passage of air by raising the velum is called Velic closure.

★ Nasal sounds:-

                  If the soft palate is lowered, the passage of the air opens into the nose is opened. If the passage of the air into mouth is blocked, the air from the lungs will escape into the outer atmosphere only through the nose. During the production of sounds, if the air escape only through the nose is called Nasal sounds. The sounds in the English words Sum, Sung and Sun are Nasal sounds. By lowering the soft palate, there is a valic opening and thus the nasal passage is opened.

★ Nasalised sounds:-

    

           There are certain sounds, during articulation of that soft palate is lowered and there is opening of nasal passage of air. But oral passage of air is not blocked and therefore both the nasal and oral passage are open. The air from the lungs then escape simultaneously through the nose and the mouth. Such sounds are called nasalised sounds. Last sound in the French word Ban(good) and the vowel in Hindi words like आँख(eye) and ऊंट(camel) are the examples of nasalised sounds.

                  To assure, whether the sound is nasal or oral, we can block the nostrils while articulating the sound. If the sound stops, the sound is Nasal. If we can continue to produce the sound even after blocking the nostrils, the sound is Oral. Prolonged SSSS sound is Oral sound and prolonged MMMM sound is Nasal sound.

★ Conclusion:-

  

                    Thus, the speech sound includes various organs of our body. Through the function of the organs, we can produce speech sounds. All these are responsible for the various speech sounds in every language in a different ways.

Thanks for Visiting...