Phonology: The

Sounds of
Language

Speech Production
The Production of Speech Sounds
• In studying the sound system of a language,
we need to find out what people are doing
when they are articulating speech sounds and
how these sounds can be described.
ii. The Vocal Tract
 How are speech sounds made?
1. Air from the lungs passes through the vocal
tract.
2. Here, the vocal tract shapes the air into
different speech sounds.
3. The air then, exits the vocal tract through the
mouth, or nose or both
 The 7 Articulators /ɑːˈtɪkjʊleɪtəz/
1. Pharynx /ˈfærɪŋks/ –
- a tube which begins just above the larynx and ends just
behind the root of the tongue
- 7 cm in women, 8 cm in men
- at the top end, it’s divided into 2: the back of the oral cavity
/mouth and the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity
2. Velum /ˈviːləm/ or soft palate /sɒft ˈpælət/
- soft part of the roof of the mouth, ends with a dangling
uvula
- allows air to pass through the nasal and oral cavity
- one of the articulators that can be touched by the
tongue : the tongue touches the lower side of the velum
the velar consonants /k/ and /g/
3. Hard palate
- called roof of the mouth
- stretches from the alveolar ridge to the velum
- a smooth curved surface
- palatal sound /j/ is produced here
4. Alveolar ridge /ˌælviˈəʊlə rɪdʒ/
- located between the top front teeth and the
hard palate
- a little rough as its covered with little ridges
- sounds made by the tongue touching it :
/t/ and /d/ are called alveolar sounds
5. Tongue /tʌŋ/
- can be moved into many different places and different
shapes
- five parts of the tongue: tip, blade, front, back and root

Sub-divisions of the tongue

6. Teeth /tiːθ/
- lined round the upper and lower sides of the
mouth, back till almost the soft palate
- most speech sounds produced when the
tongue touches the upper teeth producing
dental sounds /θ/ and /ð/
7. Lips
- very important in the production of speech
sounds
- when lips are pressed together and released
suddenly to produce /p/ or /b/ - labial or bilabial
- lips are rounded to produce /u:/
- lip-to-teeth contact to produce /f/ or /v/
labiodental
• These 7 are the primary articulators
Other articulators:
i. Larynx /ˈlærɪŋks/
- a complex and independent articulator
- known as the Adam’s apple or voice box
- When speech sounds are produced, the vocal
cords often vibrate/phonate. For e.g., your
larynx vibrates when you produce the voiced
consonant sound /z/.
ii. Jaws /dʒɔːz/
- move the lower jaw in speaking
- they are not the same as other articulators as
they do not come in contact with any
iii. Nose /nəʊz/ and nasal cavity /ˈneɪzl ̩ ˈkævɪti/
- very important in the production of sounds (also
known as vocal apparatus)
- nasal consonants /m/, /n/ or /ŋ/.
- are not moveable and do act the same way as the main
articulators
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one on the right represents a voiced
consonant, while the one on the left is unvoiced. Shaded areas denote articulations
judged to be impossible