Prof. Fakhar Alam

Dept. of English

Govt. College Civil Lines Multan

Prof. Fakhar Alam

Dept. of English

Govt. College Civil Lines Multan

Prof. Fakhar Alam

Dept. of English

Govt. College Civil Lines Multan

Prof. Fakhar Alam

Dept. of English

Govt. College Civil Lines Multan

Prof. Fakhar Alam's portal for college students!

    Paper 6        Linguistics


    Organs of Speech


    The function of the eight parts of human speech organs:
    Lips, Teeth, Tongue, Uvula, Glottis, Alveolar Ridge, Alveolar Ridge, Hard Palate, and Velum (Soft Palate)
    Lips form different shapes, such as an oval, and movements in order to make different sounds. Sounds can be formed by using the teeth to shape the lips, in combination with the tongue, or to block air from escaping the mouth. The tongue moves throughout the mouth and with many of the other organs, as well as making shapes like the lips, in order to formulate speech. The uvula is used to make guttural sounds. It helps to make nasal consonants by stopping air from moving through the nose. The glottis is used in controlling the vibration made by the vocal chords, in order to make different sounds. The alveolar ridge helps us to make different sounds, known as alveolar sounds, the tongue touches the ridges found on this organ. Hard palate, like the alveolar ridge, is the organ of speech where the tongue touches and taps the palate when articulating speech. The movable velum can retract and elevate in order to separate the mouth from the nasal cavity, helping to make speech less nasally. When the tongue hits the velum, it also makes a special sound called the velar consonant.
    Table of Consonant
    Mode of Production / Manner of Articulation

    Viceless Voiced Place of Articulation

    Keywords Plosives or stops

    p b

    bilabial

    pin bin t d

    alveolar

    tin din k g

    velar

    cap gap

    Fricatives

    - w

    bilabial

    - west f v

    labio-dental

    fan van q ð

    intra-dental

    thin then s z

    alveolar

    sue zoo - l

    alveolar

    leaf - r

    alveolar

    red ʃ / š Ӡ / ž

    alveo palatal

    shoe measure - J / y

    palatal

    yes h -

    glottal

    hat

    Affricates

    tʃ / ǰ dʒ / č

    alveo palatal

    chew jew

    Nasals

    m bilabial

    man n

    alveolar

    name ŋ

    velar

    song (C. Baruah : 2004; 32).
    Manner of Articulation

    Stops or plosives.

    The manner of articulation of stop or plosive sounds is produced by complete ‘stopping’ of the airstream and let it go abruptly. Fricatives.

    The manner of articulation of stop or plosive sounds is produced by almost blocking the airstream and pushing the air through a narrow opening. By pushing the air through, a type of friction is produced and the produced sounds are called fricatives. If you for example put your palm in front of your mouth when producing fricative sounds, you feel the stream of air being pushed out. Affricates.

    The manner of articulation of affricate sounds is produced by a brief stopping followed by an obstructed release which results in some friction. Nasals.

    The manner of articulation of nasal sounds is produced by lowering the velum and following the airstream to flow out through the nose to produce nasal sound (Yule:2003; 46)
    Place of articulation

    Bilabials. Bilabials are produced through upper and lower lips.

    Labiodentals. Labiodental sounds are produced through the upper teeth and the lower lip.

    Dentals. Dental sound is produced by placing the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth.

    Interdental or intra-dental is sometimes applied to describe a manner of pronunciation with the tongue tip between the upper and lower teeth.

    Alveolars. Alveolar sound is produced through the front part of the tongue placed on the alveolar ridge.

    Alveo-palatals. These are produced by placing the tongue at the very front of the palate, which is near the alveolar ridge.

    Velars. The production of velar sound is done by placing the back of the tongue against the velum

    Glottal. This is produced without the active of the tongue and other parts of the mouth. This sound is produced in the glottis- a space between the vocal cords and the larynx (Yule: 2003; 42-44).

Prof. Fakhar Alam
Website design / content / graphics by Fakhar Alam   © 2015 Prof. Fakhar Alam