RUBELYN G.

RABANG

BSE 1-1

INTRO TO LINGUISTICS

Assignment 3

HOW HUMANS PRODUCED SOUNDS

I learned from the video that vibrating objects produced sounds and in us human beings, we produced
sound through the voice box or larynx. It is situated in the upper end of the windpipe. The two vocal
cords are stretched across the larynx that it leaves a narrow slit between them for the passage of air.
When the air is forced by the lungs to the slit, the vocal cords vibrate therefore producing sound. The
muscles attached to the vocal cords can make it tight and thin. When the vocal cords are tight and thin,
the type of voice quality is different from that when they are loose and thick. It is also on the length of
vocal cord that the voice quality depends. The length of vocal cords in men are about 20 millimeter long.
In women, vocal cords are about 5 millimeter long. And children have this very short vocal cords. That
explains why the their voices are different from each other.

INTRODUCTION TO ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

I learned in the video that articulatory phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced in the
vocal tract. The articulators in our vocal tracts must be united to produce just one speech sound. I
learned that consonant involves some constriction of airflow while vowels do not. That there are three
criteria in describing consonant sounds namely: voice, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
In voicing or state of the glottis, it can be a voiceless or voiced sounds. In the place of articulation which
refers to where in the vocal tract the constriction of airflow takes place, sounds such as bilabial,
labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal are used. While in the manner of articulation
which refers to how the airflow is constricted in the vocal tract, sound like stop, fricatives, affricate,
nasal, liquid, glide and tap are used.