ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

ORGANS OF SPEECH
Alla Voitovych
Fl-17

2016
 DID YOU KNOW THAT?)

 Almost half of our body participates in the production of

Speech sounds
 Speech organs produce the sounds needed for language.
 The system of these organs is called articulatory
apparatus. In order to learn how the sounds of speech are
produced it is necessary to become familiar with the
different parts of them.
 There should be distinguished active speech organs,
which can be moved into contact with other articulators,
such as the tongue, and passive organs of speech, such
as the teeth, the hard palate and the alveolar ridge, which
are immovable in producing speech sounds.
ACTIVE ORGANS
 Active organs of speech are the lips, the jaws,

the tongue, the soft palate with the uvula,

the vocal cords, the lungs.

 ACTIVE ORGANS


The lips are involved in producing different sounds. They can be pressed
together (the sound p), can be brought into contact with teeth (as f, v), or
rounded (uu). Lip-to-lip sounds are called bilabial, lip-to-teeth sounds are
called labiodental.
ACTIVE ORGANS
 The jaws are called articulators due to their moving
during the speaking. But the jaws are not the articulators
in the same way as others because they cannot
themselves make contact with other articulators.
ACTIVE ORGANS
 The tongue is very important articulator because of its
moving (it can be moved into different places and
shapes) we can produce most sounds. It is usual to divide
the tongue into different parts – tip, blade, front, back
and root.
These parts we can see on the picture below:
ACTIVE ORGANS
 The soft palate with the uvula – the organ, that allows
air to pass through the nose and mouth in certain position
(when it is raised air cannot escape through the nose and
vice versa). It is involved in performing the sounds k, g.
ACTIVE ORGANS
 The vocal cords are composed of twin unfoldings of mucous
membrane stretched horizontally, from back to front, across the
larynx. They vibrate, modulating the flow of air being expelled
from the lungs during phonation. Males and females have
different vocal fold sizes.
 ACTIVE ORGANS
 The lungs are articulatory and respiratory organ.
In order to speak you need air. This airflow can be produced with
air moving out of the lungs.
 PASSIVE ORGANS
 the teeth, the hard palate and the alveolar ridge,

which are immovable in producing speech sounds.

 PASSIVE ORGANS
 The teeth (upper and lower) are shown in diagram below.
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.
PASSIVE ORGANS
 The hard palate is called the “roof of the mouth”. You
can feel its smooth surface with your tongue. A
consonant made with the tongue close to the hard palate
is called palatal (the sound j in “yes”).
PASSIVE ORGANS
 The alveolar ridge (see it on the first picture) is between the top
front teeth and the hard palate. Its surface is covered
with little ridges. Sounds made with the tongue touching
here ( such as t, d, n) are called alveolar.