MORGIANA BT HAMZAH

TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

1.0 Introduction
The function of the articulators in speech production (articulation) is primarily
movement. The primarily articulators are the lips, tongue, teeth, palate and jaw. The
movement of the articulators as well as the way the air from the lung is stopped,
pushed and stretched gives us our speech skill.
We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape
of the vocal tract and in order to learn how the sounds of speech are produced it is
necessary to become familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract. These
different parts are called articulators.
2.0 Articulators
Articulators are mobile organs and all the sounds we make when we speak are the
result of muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing
produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the
larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the
mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we call the vocal
tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into
the atmosphere.

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

3.0 Main organs of the articulators

There are seven main articulators used in speech . They are as follow:
i) The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in
women and about 8 cm in men, and at its top end it is divided into two, one part
being the back of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through the
nasal cavity. It is conventionally divided into three sections.
ii) The velum or soft palate or muscular palate is the soft tissue constituting the back
of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the
front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone.
iii) The hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull located in the room of
the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth. It forms a partition between
the nasal passages and the mouth. The other important thing about the velum is that
it is one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue.
iv) The alveolar ridge also known as the alveolar margin is one of the jaw ridges
either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate or on the
bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth. It can be felt with the tongue in the right
area right above the top teeth or below the bottom teeth. Its surface is covered with
little ridges.

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

v) The tongue can be divided into three parts namely the tip of the tongue, the front
of the tongue, and the back of the tongue. The tip of the tongue is the front end of the
tongue which at rest touches the back of the front teeth. The front of the tongue at
rest is directly below the hard palate, while the back of the tongue at rest is directly
below the soft palate.
vi) The teeth are located on both the upper jaw and the lower jaw. The teeth on the
upper jaw are known as the upper teeth, while those on the lower jaw are called the
lower teeth. Most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back almost to
the soft palate.
vii) The lips are the protrusions at the front of the mouth. It is described as upper
lip and lower lip.

4.0 The Role of the articulators in speech sound

In humans, the pharynx commonly called the voice box is particularly important as an
instrument of speech or in vocalization. It functions with the various parts of the
mouth to articulate the initial sounds produced in the larynx.
The velum or soft palate allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth.
Often in speech, the velum is raised to prevent the air from escaping through the
nose. . When we make the sounds k and g the tongue is in contact with the lower
side of the velum, and we call these velar consonants

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

The hard palate is important for feeding and speech. The interaction between the
tongue and the hard palate is essential in the formation of certain speech sounds,
notably /t/, /d/, /j/, and //.
Sounds made with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge while speaking are called
alveolar. Examples of alveolar consonants in English are, for instance, [t], [d], [s], [z],
[n], [l] like in the words time, dawn, silly, zoo, nasty and lollipop. There are exceptions
to this however, such as speakers of the New York Accent who pronounce [t] and [d]
at the back of their teeth. When pronouncing these sounds the tongue touches ([t],
[d], [n]), or nearly touches ([s], [z]) the upper alveolar ridge which can also be referred
to as gum ridge.
In many other languages these same consonants are articulated slightly differently,
and are often described as dental consonants. In many languages consonants are
articulated with the tongue touching or close to the upper alveolar ridge. The former
are called alveolar plosives, and the latter alveolar fricatives.
The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many speech sounds. Sounds
made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental. The lips are
important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds p
, b ), brought into contact with the teeth (as in f , v), or rounded to produce the lipshape for vowels like u. Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are
called bilabial while those with lip to teeth are called labiodental.

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

5.0 Speech sound

Speech sound begins with the expulsion of air from the lungs through the mouth or
nose. Different human speech sounds are produced as a result of the obstruction of
air stream by the speech organs mentioned. The air stream has to pass through the
oral tract and the nasal tract. The oral tract starts from the pharynx to the oral cavity
formed

between the palate and the tongue. When the air stream from the lungs

flows through the nasal cavity , we produce nasal sounds.

6.0 Closure
Language is primarily used for communication either in the oral or written form. In the
oral form, all human languages involve in the production of the speech sounds. The
seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but there are
three other things to remember. Firstly, the larynx could also be described as an
articulator - a very complex and independent one. Secondly, the jaws are sometimes
called articulators; certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in speaking. But the jaws are
not articulators in the same way as the others, because they cannot themselves
make contact with other articulators. Finally, although there is practically nothing that
we can do with the nose and the nasal cavity, they are a very important part of our
equipment for making sounds (what is sometimes called our vocal apparatus),
particularly nasal consonants such as m ,

n . Again, we cannot really describe the

nose and the nasal cavity as articulators in the same sense as (i) to (vii) above.

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

TABLE OF CONTENT
1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 ARTICULATORS

3.0 MAIN ORGANS OF THE ARTICULATORS

4.0 THE ROLE OF THE ARTICULATOR S IN SPEECH SOUND

5.0 SPEECH SOUND

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
6.0 CLOSURE

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

KAMPUS IPOH
31150 HULU KINTA
PERAK DARUL RIDZUAN

KURSUS PPG TESL

Ambilan Februari 2012
NAME
I/C NUMBER
GROUP/ UNIT
CODE AND
SUBJECT
LECTURERS NAME
SUBMISSION DATE

691205086318

: MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
: 691205086318
: PPG TESL
: TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
: ENCIK AHMAD MASDIL FADZLI
: 4 AUGUST 2012

BAHAGIAN PENDIDIKAN GURU

KEMENTERIAN PELAJARAN MALAYSIA

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318

Reference

1. Introducing Phonetics and Phonology Mike Davenport and S.J hannahs

Department of Linguistics and English language, University of Durham
1998, ISBN 0 340 66218 2 (hb), ISBN 0 340 66217 4 (pb)
2. Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-7174-0-3 English Phonology and Phonetics
Practical Course , Forth Edition
Peter Roach
Excerpt
3. Articulatory phonetics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The three pistons present in the articulatory system are the larynx, the tongue
body, ... What the above equations express is that given an initial pressure P_1
en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Articulatory_phonetics

4. Introduction to speech production

Aug 1, 2009 ... Click here to see a flow chart overview of the above processes. ...
The larynx is a
continuation of the trachea but the cartilage structures of the larynx are highly ...
Click here to see an overview diagram of the major articulators.
clas.mq.edu.au/phonetics/phonetics/introduction/index.html

5. 2 i f The production of speech sounds

The production of speech sounds. 2.1 Articulators above the larynx. All the
sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The
muscles ...
www.cambridge.org/servlet/file/9780521888820_The production

MORGIANA BT HAMZAH
TSL 3104 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

691205086318