Organs of speech

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Organs of speech can be divided into 2 groups: active and passive.

Passive: teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate.

Active: vocal cords, the back wall of the pharynx, soft palate, uvula, tongue, lips.

The air stream from the lungs goes through the wind-pipe and come to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. If the vocal cords are brought together, the air stream makes them vibrate and we can hear voice. If the vocal cords are kept apart, a voiceless sound is produced.

When the air stream comes out of larynx it passes through the pharynx. The pharynx contains the soft palate which directs the air stream to the mouth or to the nasal cavity. When the soft palate is lowered the air goes into the nasal cavity, when it is raised the air goes into the mouth.

Sounds of speech:

The sounds of speech consist of phonemes. Phoneme is the smallest undividable sound unit of a language.

Different types of phonemes are called allophones. For example letter ‘n’ in the words thin and think.

Sounds can be divided into two types: vowels and consonants.

Vowel is a vibration of the vocal cords without any obstruction (i, e, i:, u, u:, etc).

Consonant is a vibration of the vocal cords with obstruction (t, p, l, etc). Consonants can be voiced and voiceless.

Classification of vowels:

I. Stability of articulation:

1. Monophthongs (the articulation of a sound is not changing): i, e, a:,ǽ, o, o:, u, Λ, Ə, Ə:.

2. Diphthongs (the organs of speech glide from one vowel position to another within one syllable): ei, ai, oi, au, ou, iƏ, uƏ. The 1^st element is nucleus, the 2^nd – glide.

3. diphthongoids (the pronunciation is slightly changing): i:, u:.

II. Tongue position:

1. Horizontal:

· front vowels (the tongue is in the front part of the mouth): i:, e, ǽ.

· front-retracted (the tongue is in the front part of the mouth, but slightly retracted): i.

· central (the front part of the tongue is raised to the back part of the hard palate): Λ, Ə, Ə:.

· back (the tongue is in the back part of the mouth): u:, o:, o, a:.

· back-advanced (the tongue is in the back part of the mouth, but is slightly advanced): u.

2. Vertical:

· High: high narrow (the tongue is raised very high towards the palate): i:, u:; high broad (the tongue is raised not so high towards the palate): i, u.

· Open: open broad (the tongue is as low as possible in the mouth): ǽ, a:; open narrow (the tongue is not so low): o, o:.

· Mid vowel: mid broad (the tongue occupies the mid position between close and open positions): Λ, Ə; mid narrow (the tongue is raised a little higher): Ə:, e.

III. Lip position:

1. unrounded (the lips are neutral): i:, i, e, ǽ, a:, Λ, Ə:, Ə.

2. rounded (the lips are rounded): o, o:, u, u:.

IV. Vowel length:

1. long (i:, a:, o:, u:, Ə:).

2. short (i, Λ, o, u, Ə).

3. half-long (ǽ).

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