CLASS:

M.A English 1st Semester, Morning

SUBJECT:
Phonetics and Phonology

TOPIC OF ASSIGNMENT:
Organs of Speech

SUBMITTED TO:
MAM Asma Mubarik

SUBMITTED BY:
Farhat SaeedAbida PerveenHina Ishrat, Samajid Rasheed,Umer Daraz
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THE SPEECH ORGANS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

Speech
Speech is the product of muscular movements. The sounds of language are produced by the passage of a current of air through cavities of throat and face controlled by muscles of these regions.

THE SPEECH ORGANS Speech is produced in the throat, mouth and nasal passage, but there are no speech organs as such, strictly speaking; all of the organs used in speech have other, and perhaps more fundamental, purpose involving eating and breathing.

Speech is produced by causing a column of enclosed air to vbrate. It is the same prosses, basically, as the production of sound by a wind instrument in music. ARTICULATORS These are movile organs that can be brough close to, or into contact withi, various locations in the speech tract (known as points of articulation) so as to stop or impede the free passage of the air stream. POINTS OF ARTICULATION These are fixed locations againts which the movile articulators operate in order to produce speech sounds: the teeth, the gums, the alveolar ridge, the various parts of the palate (sometimes called hard palate to distinguish it from the soft palate or velum), the velum, the walls of the pharynx and the glotis. Types of Organs of Speech and their Functions
Nasal cavity-The nasal cavity conditions the air to be received by the other areas of the respiratory tract. Owing to the large surface area provided by the nasal conchae, the air passing through the nasal cavity is warmed or cooled to within 1 degree of body temperature. In addition, the air is humidified, and dust and other particulate matter is removed by vibrissae, short, thick hairs, present in the vestibule. The cilia of the respiratory epithelium move the particulate matter towards the pharynx where it passes into the esophagus and is digested in the stomach.
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Hard palate- The hard palate is important for feeding and speech. Mammals with a defective hard palate may die shortly after birth due to inability to suckle. It is also involved in mastication in many species. The interaction between the tongue and the hard palate is essential in the formation of certain speech sounds, notably /t/, /d/, /j/, and /f/.

Oral cavity- The mouth plays an important role in eating, drinking and breathing. Infants are born with a sucking reflex, by which they instinctively know to suck for nourishment using their lips and jaw. Lips- The upper lip and lower lip help to produce bilabial sounds /p, b, m/. If they are held together, the sounds produced in that position are bilabial stops : / p, b/. If the lips
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are held together, they produce different vowels. Tongue- The tip of the tongue helps to produce /t, d, , , etc/. The front ofz, etc/. The blade of the tongue helps to produce /t, d the tongue helps to produce palatal sound /j/ and the back of the tongue helps to produce /k, g/ sounds. Lower jaw- Change size of oral cavity. Glottis- As the vocal folds vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called voice or voicing or pronunciation. Sound production involving only the glottis is called glottal. English has a voiceless glottal fricative spelled "h". In many accents of English the glottal stop (made by pressing the folds together) is used as a variant allophone of the phoneme /t/ (and in some dialects, occasionally of /k/ and /p/); in some languages, this sound is a phoneme of its own. Soft palate (velum) - The soft palate is movable, consisting of muscle fibers sheathed in mucous membrane. It is responsible for closing off the nasal passages during the act of swallowing, and also for closing off the airway. During sneezing, it protects the nasal passage by diverting a portion of the excreted substance to the mouth. Uvula- The most important among the uvula functions in the human body is speech articulation and preventing food from entering the breathing passage. Uvula problems can alter its functions in the body, and therefore it is very important to take good care of it. The uvula functions along with the back of the throat, palate, and air coming up from the lungs to produce gruff and other sounds. Pharynx- The pharynx is a common passageway for air and food, which is why

pharynx has dual role. The pharynx opens into two pathways, one that leads to the esophagus or food passage and the other trachea or air passage. Trachea- In vertebrates and invertebrates, a tube or system of tubes that carries air. In insects, a few land arachnids, and myriapods, the trachea is an elaborate system of small, branching tubes that carry oxygen to individual body cells; in most land vertebrates, the trachea is the windpipe, which conveys air from the larynx to the two main bronchi, with the lungs and their air sacs as the ultimate destination. In some birds, such as the swan, there is an extra length of tracheal tube coiled under the front of the rib cage. The cartilaginous structures that ring most mammalian tracheae are reduced to small irregular nodules in amphibians. Esophagus- The esophagus is an often overlooked organ which is a vital component of your digestive system. Without it, there would be no way for food and liquids to make their way from your mouth to your stomach. It doesn't take a doctor to realize that this would not be convenient for most people. The esophagus itself is a muscular tube, approximately 25 cm (10 inches) from top to bottom. The top of the esophagus is attached to the pharynx, which is the anatomical term for the back of your throat. The bottom of the esophagus attaches to the stomach. Teeth- The teeth work with the lips, and with the tongue and palette to form sounds. In some instances, the teeth form a "solid wall" to mark out the inner boundary of the mouth, and the facial muscles pull the lips taught over the teeth. The "B" sound normally has the lips curling over the shape of the teeth to form the sound. In forming the "F" and "V" sounds, the lower lip is actually pressed to the upper teeth to shape them. In the "S" sound, the teeth trap the air and work with the tongue to form it. The "Z" sound is made
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with the teeth together and some help from the tongue. We can make a "J" sound without the teeth, but we usually don't. (Try it!) Same with the "L" sound. Nose- Is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes through the pharynx, shared with the digestive system, and then into the rest of the respiratory system. In humans, the nose is located centrally on the face; on most other mammals, it is on the upper tip of the snout. Larynx- Thus, during the act of swallowing the larynx is closed, thereby ensuring that food passes safely into the esophagus and down into the stomach, rather than entering the lungs. And is as a source of sound to be used in speech.