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- Dictionaryspeech sound
noun
- 1. a phonetically distinct unit of speech.
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May 23, 2015 · This sound does appear, however, in words in Nama (one of the so-called Kohisan languages of the Kalahari in Africa). Clearly, native speakers of a Nama and native speakers of English are both capable of producing a dental click. However, this sound is only considered to be a speech sound for one group – the speakers of Nama. For speakers of ...
- Studying Speech
Articulatory phonetics is the study of how the human vocal...
- Speech Development
At around six months of age the infant reaches what is known...
- Decode
Put another way, a person (source) formulates an idea – a...
- Approximants
This speech sound is a lateral. We noted earlier that a...
- Communication
Sometimes known as motherese or parentese, this linguistic...
- Plosives
Plosives = stops. Plosive consonants are oral sounds, i.e....
- Making Speech Sounds
This vibration is known as voicing and any speech sounds...
- English Speech Sounds 101
Contents OVERVIEW Introduction What is a Speech Sound?...
- Studying Speech
Apr 28, 2020 · A Speech and Language Therapist will be able to use samples of a child’s speech, usually with a picture naming assessment, to figure out what sounds a child can say, what sounds are missing or replaced, if the child has any particular difficulty with saying a type of sound and then decide on the best way to help make these difficulties better.
What are speech sounds? Speech sounds are the sounds we use for talking. We use our tongue, lips, teeth, and other parts of our mouth to create different speech sounds. Speech sounds are not the same as letters. For example, the word ‘sheep’ has five letters, but only three sounds: ‘sh’ ‘ee’ ‘p’.
Speech Sounds by Age: When and How to Teach Speech Sound Pronunciation Join The Hub (Free Trial Available) What are Speech Sounds? Speech sounds are the sounds in our language that we use to make up words. Each speech sound is produced slightly differently and we expect children
- Overview
- Articulatory phonetics
- Consonants
phonetics, the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities. It deals with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech sounds (articulatory phonetics), the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic phonetics), and the manner of combining sounds so as to make syllables, words, and sentences (...
The traditional method of describing speech sounds is in terms of the movements of the vocal organs that produce them. The main structures that are important in the production of speech are the lungs and the respiratory system, together with the vocal organs shown in Figure 1. The airstream from the lungs passes between the vocal cords, which are two small muscular folds located in the larynx at the top of the windpipe. The space between the vocal cords is known as the glottis. If the vocal cords are apart, as they are normally when breathing out, the air from the lungs will have a relatively free passage into the pharynx (see Figure 1) and the mouth. But if the vocal cords are adjusted so that there is a narrow passage between them, the airstream will cause them to be sucked together. As soon as they are together there will be no flow of air, and the pressure below them will be built up until they are blown apart again. The flow of air between them will then cause them to be sucked together again, and the vibratory cycle will continue. Sounds produced when the vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as opposed to those in which the vocal cords are apart, which are said to be voiceless.
The air passages above the vocal cords are known collectively as the vocal tract. For phonetic purposes they may be divided into the oral tract within the mouth and the pharynx, and the nasal tract within the nose. Many speech sounds are characterized by movements of the lower articulators—i.e., the tongue or the lower lip—toward the upper articulators within the oral tract. The upper surface includes several important structures from the point of view of speech production, such as the upper lip and the upper teeth; Figure 1 illustrates most of the terms that are commonly used. The alveolar ridge is a small protuberance just behind the upper front teeth that can easily be felt with the tongue. The major part of the roof of the mouth is formed by the hard palate in the front, and the soft palate or velum at the back. The soft palate is a muscular flap that can be raised so as to shut off the nasal tract and prevent air from going out through the nose. When it is raised so that the soft palate is pressed against the back wall of the pharynx there is said to be a velic closure. At the lower end of the soft palate is a small hanging appendage known as the uvula.
As may be seen from Figure 1, there are also specific names for different parts of the tongue. The tip and blade are the most mobile parts. Behind the blade is the so-called front of the tongue; it is actually the forward part of the body of the tongue and lies underneath the hard palate when the tongue is at rest. The remainder of the body of the tongue may be divided into the centre, which is partly beneath the hard palate and partly beneath the soft palate; the back, which is beneath the soft palate; and the root, which is opposite the back wall of the pharynx.
The major division in speech sounds is that between vowels and consonants. Phoneticians have found it difficult to give a precise definition of the articulatory distinction between these two classes of sounds. Most authorities would agree that a vowel is a sound that is produced without any major constrictions in the vocal tract, so that there is a relatively free passage for the air. It is also syllabic. This description is unsatisfactory in that no adequate definition of the notion syllabic has yet been formulated.
In the formation of consonants, the airstream through the vocal tract is obstructed in some way. Consonants can be classified according to the place and manner of this obstruction. Some of the possible places of articulation are indicated by the arrows going from one of the lower articulators to one of the upper articulators in Figure 1. The principal terms that are required in the description of English articulation, and the structures of the vocal tract that they involve are: bilabial, the two lips; dental, tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth; alveolar, tongue tip or blade and the teeth ridge; retroflex, tongue tip and the back part of the teeth ridge; palato-alveolar, tongue blade and the back part of the teeth ridge; palatal, front of tongue and hard palate; and velar, back of tongue and soft palate. The additional places of articulation shown in Figure 1 are required in the description of other languages. Note that the terms for the various places of articulation denote both the portion of the lower articulators (i.e., lower lip and tongue) and the portion of the upper articulatory structures that are involved. Thus velar denotes a sound in which the back of the tongue and the soft palate are involved, and retroflex implies a sound involving the tip of the tongue and the back part of the alveolar ridge. If it is necessary to distinguish between sounds made with the tip of the tongue and those made with the blade, the terms apical (tip) and laminal (blade) may be used.
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There are six basic manners of articulation that can be used at these places of articulation: stop, fricative, approximant, trill, tap, and lateral.
We’ll talk some about the acoustics of speech sounds, but we’re primarily interested in articulatory phonetics, that is, how we humans use our bodies to produce speech sounds. Producing speech needs three mechanisms. The first is a source of energy. Anything that makes a sound needs a source of energy. For human speech sounds, the air ...
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Feb 21, 2019 · One of these is dysarthria, in which neurological damage from stroke, traumatic brain injury, or degenerative disorders (ALS, MS, Dementia) makes it difficult to move the muscles that produce speech sounds. This is due to a disruption in the transmission of motor signals from the brain to the articulators.
