Chapter 8 Deals with the Articulatory System

Lecture 17

I have made a decision to skip to Chapter 8 and I would like for us to pick up on page 183

Chapter 8 deals with the articulatory system

What does the word articulation mean to you?

Keep in mind that speech is an overlaid function

We have a system in place whereby we classify sounds.

You should know that sounds are divided into two classes, those being consonants and vowels.

We will start with consonants.

There are three major dimensions of consonants, what are they?

Manner of articulation Place of articulation Voicing

We will follow the book and look at place of articulation first.

For English sounds there are seven places of articulation.

What are they

Lips Bilabial Lips and teeth Labiodental Tongue and Teeth Linguadental Sometimes called interdental Tongue and Alveolar Linguaalveolar Tongue and palate Linguapalatal Tongue and velum Linguaaveolar Voval folds Glottal

We will come back to these and give examples later

Now manner of articulation.

What does that mean?

It has to do with the manipulation of the airstream and the production of sound There are six manners of articulation

What are they?

Stops or plosives Fricatives Affricatives Nasals Glides Liquids

Lets do a little review

Speech production can be divided into three parts.

1. Respiration 2. Phonation 3. Articulation

We do not have the vocal organ. Instead we borrow from other biological systems to produced speech so speech is said to be borrowed or overlaid.

An overview

Starting with the respiratory system.

The biological purpose of the respiratory system is concerned with the inhalation of air for oxygen needed by the body and the exhalation of air to remove carbon dioxide.

With the English language, all of our sounds are made during the exhalation phase of respiration.

Respiration requires the use of bones, muscles, and tissues of the thorax and abdomen.

Skeletal framework of respiration

Vertebral column

Rib cage including ribs and sternum

Muscles of respiration

Muscles of inspiration

Intercostals Diaphragm

Muscles of exhalation primarily abdominal

They are cone-shaped and consist of millions of tiny air sacs. They adhere to the skeletal walls of the thorax and move in conjunction with them.

The air sacs feed into tubes called bronchioles, which in turn feed into a larger tube called the bronchial tube, which in turn feeds into the trachea. Trachea

It is a muscular cartilaginous tube that ascend upward from the lungs and lies just below the larynx.

Larynx

It is at the larynx that the second part of speech, phonation, occurs.

The larynx is a muscular cartilaginous and membranous structure located in the anterior portion of the neck.

It is essentially a small tube that can be totally constricted at one point along its length.

The biological function of the larynx is to protect the lungs.

A horseshoe shaped bone called the hyoid bone, which lies just inside the mandible, suspends the larynx from above.

The base of the larynx is the cricoid cartilage.

Resting on the cricoid cartilage are two arytenoid cartilages.

A thyroid cartilage is shield-shaped.

The epiglottis is a leaf-shaped cartilage that extends from the thyroid cartilage to the back of the tongue.

There are numerous intrinsic and extrinsic muscles associated with the larynx.

The intrinsic muscles position the various laryngeal cartilage’s relationships with one another and control vocal folds.

The extrinsic laryngeal muscles effect the larynx position within the neck. The vocal folds are positioned in such a way that there is a triangular space between them, which is called the glottis.

The vocal folds can be made to vibrate by pressure from the respiratory system and they will typically vibrate at a rate from 60 – 350 Hz. The sound resulting from this vibration is the basis for voicing in speech production.

Pharynx

The third part of speech is articulation and it is associated with the structures which lie immediately above the larynx.

The cavities associated with articulation are collectively called the pharynx, which is divided into the laryngeal pharynx (throat), the oral pharynx immediate behind the mouth, and the nasal pharynx immediately behind the nose.

Nose, Jaw, and Mouth

The oral cavity is referred to as the mouth and the nasal pharynx is referred to as the nose.

Movement/Articulation

Each of these cavities and structures within them can change their shape or come into contact with each other to convert the sound from the lungs and larynx into speech sounds. This process is called articulation.

The structures that produce sounds are called articulators and they include the lips, the teeth, the tongue, the alveolar ridge (gums), the hard palate, the soft palate (velum), and the pharynx.

The primary articulator is the tongue. It is essentially a large muscle that comprises the majority of the floor of the mouth. The tip of the tongue is thin and is important for the production of numerous sounds of English including /t, d, n, s, z, l, th/.

The lips make up the opening between the oral cavity and the outside world.

They are primarily muscular and very mobile and associated with the production of the sounds /p, b, m, w/. These sounds appear to be learned early in the developmental sequence probably because of their visibility and the sensory readiness of the oral region shortly after birth.

The lips can also be combined with the teeth to form the labial-dental sounds /f, v/.

The teeth are important articulators because they serve as contacts for both the lips and tongue. It is possible to talk without the teeth but the production of the /s/ sound may not be precise.

We (humans) get two sets, deciduous or baby teeth, and permanent teeth.

The alveolar ridge or gums is a narrow, bony shelf and is an important contact for many tongue tip sounds including /t, d, s, z, w, n/.

The hard palate extends from the alveolar ridge back to an area that is called the soft palate and makes up the major portion of the roof of the mouth. It is an important contact point for lingual-palate sounds /dg, sh/.

The velum is the soft palate and is a muscular protrusion that extend backward from the hard palate. Its free end is called the uvula. During respiration, the uvula is positioned downward so that the nasal cavity is unobstructed.

It is also typically down for the production of most speech sounds with the exception as the three nasal sounds /m, n, ng/.