Articulatory Phonetics And The Vocal Organs

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Articulatory Phonetics is one of the subfields of Phonetics. It deals with the articulation and the acoustic properties of speech and how they combine to make syllables, words, and sentences. Namely the articulatory phonetics deals with the way of sound production in the human system. It helps us to understand the various organs involved in the process of sound production and their functions. Air plays a vital role in this process. The inflow of air into the vocal tract of the human body is transformed into sound waves. Here I would to describe the various factors involved in speech production.

Vocal Organs:

The vocal organ play major role in the process of speech production. The basic source of power is the respiratory system for all the speech sounds. Air from the lungs goes to the windpipe and in the larynx. This wind passes between the small muscular folds called the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are apart, the air from the lungs will a free passage into pharynx and the mouth. If the vocal cords are not apart and have narrow passage then there occurs certain amount of air pressure. This air pressure causes vocal cords to vibrate. In this manner the sound is produced due to the vibration of the vocal cords. The soft palate is a muscular flap and it can be used to press against the back wall of the pharynx and shut of the nasal tract. Hence it also prevents the air from going out through the nose. We find a velic closure there. This action separates the nasal tract form the oral tract so that the air can go out only through the mouth. There is a small appendage hanging down at the lower end of the soft palate and it is called the uvula. The reminder part of the tongue is divided into the centre, back and the root. The centre is partly beneath the hard palate and partly beneath the soft palate. The back is beneath the soft palate and the foot is opposite of the back wall of the pharynx.

The Articulation of Consonant Sounds:

Consonant is a speech sound, which is formed by the complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract. The upper vocal tract lies above the larynx. The air-stream must be obstructed in some way or other to form the consonants. The manner of articulation is the way that the consonant is articulated.

Places of Articulation:

Alveolar

When we use the tip or the blade of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, we produce this consonant sound. Hence this is called alveolar consonants. Example: tie, pie, nigh, sigh, zeal and so on.

Bilabial

A consonant sound pronounced by bringing both lips into contact with each or by rounding them is called bilabial consonant. Example: buy, my, pie and so on.

Dental

A consonant sound pronounced by placing the tongue against the back of the top front teeth is called dental. Example: thigh, thy and so on’

Labiodentals:

A consonant sound pronounced by raising the lower lip until it touches the upper front teeth is called Labiodentals. Example: fie, vie and so on.

Palatal

A consonant sound pronounced by raising the tongue to or near the hard palate is called palatal. We will be able to feel the rush of cold air between the front of the tongue and the hard palate. Example: Hugh and so on.

Palato-Alvelor

A consonant sound pronounced by placing the tip of the tongue down behind the blade of the tongue of near the alveolar is called palate-alveolar. We will be able to feel the feel the articulation if we hold the position while in a breath through the mouth. And also we can feel the cool air between the front of the tongue and hard palate. Example: shy, show, she and so on.

Retroflex:

A consonant sound pronounced with the tip of the tongue raised and bent backward is known as retroflex. Many people do not use retroflex sounds at all. Example: rye, row, ray and so on.

Velar

A consonant sound pronounced with the back of the tongue close to or in contact with the soft palate is called velar. Here the back of the tongue is raised so that it touches the velum.

Example: hack, hag, hang and so on

In this way we can classify the consonants with the help articulation. In order to get the feeling of different places of articulation, we can consider the following consonants at the beginning of each word: fee, theme, see. When we pronounce these words we find that the place of articulation moves back in the mouth in making this series of voiceless consonants going from labiodentals, through dental, and alveolar, to palate-alveolar. Similarly, when we pronounce the following words; wing, we feel that the point of articulation moves forward from velar through alveolar, to bilabial.

Manner of Articulation:

The manner of articulation explains how the tongue, lip, jaw and other speech organs involved in the consonant sound production. The place of articulation is where the obstruction occurs in the vocal tract. The manner of articulation can be classified into Stop consonants, Fricative consonants, approximants and Lateral consonants.

Stop Consonants:

Stop consonants occur when the articulators are closed completely so that the airstream cannot go out of the mouth. There are two types of stop consonants.

Oral Stop:

When there is a complete blockage of both nasal and oral cavities of the vocal tract, then the airstream is completely obstructed. The air pressure in the mouth will build up and an oral stop will be formed. When the articulators come apart the airstream will be released in small burst of sound. The following words produce such sound: pie, buy – bilabial closure, tie, dye- alveolar closure, key, guy- velar closure.

Nasal Stop:

When the air is stopped in the oral cavity and it passes through the nose, we obtain nasal stop. Nasal stop sounds occur at the beginning of the word ‘my’- biblical closure, nigh – alveolar closure and the end of the word ‘sang’- velar closure.

Fricative:

When there is a continuous frication at the place of articulation, namely the airstream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced. It is called fricative sounds. We can find fricative sound in the following examples: fie, vie – labiodentals, thigh, thy – dental, sigh, zoo – alveolar and shy- palate-alveolar. Fricative sounds can be classified in two types namely sibilants and non sibilants. In these types the higher-pitched sounds with a more obvious hiss and a very distinctive sound is produced. Example: sigh and shy.

Approximant:

The approach of one articulator on another without the vocal tract being narrowed down, we get a turbulent airstream. Such manner is called as approximant. The consonants in the words ‘we’ and raw’ are examples of approximation, because they have the approximation in the velar region and in the alveolar region respectively.

Lateral:

We get lateral consonant sound, when the obstruction of airstream at a point along the oral tract. We have the incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof the mouth. We have the following word as example namely "lip". When we pronounce this word, the sound at the beginning is alveolar lateral consonant. We find trill and tap in pronunciation. When the articulator is held in the tip of the tongue, the airstream causes to vibrate. Hence we get the trill sound. Example: rye, raw and so on. Tap is a temporary closure of the oral cavity. Example: utter and udder. The ‘tt’ and ‘dd’ of these words are pronounced as a flap. Sometime tap is also called as flap. This contact is then gradually comes down so that there exists a fricative at the same place of articulation. Such kind of combination of stop immediately followed by a fricative is known as an Affricate. We can also classify the affricates into voiced and voiceless. We find the voiceless affricate at the beginning of the word ‘Church’ and voiced affricate at the end of the word ‘judge’. Hence we understand that affricate is a speech sound made up of a stop immediately followed by a fricative.

Hence consonant sound can be classified in terms of five factors. They are as follows:

State of the vocal cords – voiced and voiceless consonants

Place of Articulation

Central or Lateral Articulation.

Velic closure – Oral and Nasal

Manner of articulatory action.

We have the word ‘sing’ as an appropriate one for all the above classifications of consonants. The consonant at the beginning is a voiceless, alveolar, central, oral and fricative. Similarly the consonant at the end is a voiced, velar, central, nasal and stop.

The Articulation of Vowel Sounds:

Vowel is a speech sound, which is articulated with an open oral tract. Hence none of the articulators come very close together and the passage of the airstream is to a certain extent unobstructed. The vowel word comes from the Latin, which means speaking. There is lack of central closure of the air stream. In other words vowels vary in pitch and they are determined by quality of the sound wave. There are two kinds of vowels. They are monophthong and diphthong. The monophthong is a single or simple vowel sound constituting the nucleus of a syllable. The diphthong is produced as one continuous sound not as a succession of sounds. Vowels are always voiced and vowels are also oral. In manner of pronunciation, vowels are all produced with open approximation. The vowel is commonly used to mean both vowel sounds and the written symbols that represent them. Vowel sounds may be specified in terms of the highest position of the tongue and the lips. Vowel sound is usually described in terms of the common qualities height, backness and roundedness. Now I would like to describe the three categories of vowels.

Vowel - Height

The height vowel refers to the vertical height of the tongue corresponding to the root of the mouth or the opening of the jaw. This can be classified into two types namely the low vowels and high vowels. The tongue is tongue is positioned high in the high vowels. Example: [i] and [u]. Similarly the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. Example: [a]. Sometimes low and high vowels are called as open and close vowels respectively. This open and close vowel states the position of the jaw also. According to the International Phonetic Alphabet there are seven different types of vowel heights. They are as follows: close vowel, near-close vowel, close-mid vowel, mid vowel, open-mid vowel, near-open vowel and open vowel.

Vowel – Backeness

The position of the tongue during the pronunciation of a vowel with respect to the back of the mouth is known as vowel backness. Example: [i]. Here we find that the position of the tongue is towards the back of the mouth. The backness vowel is classified into five. They are as follows: front vowel, near-front vowel, central vowel, near -vowel and back vowel. When the highest point of the tongue is in the front of the mouth, the vowels are known as front vowels. Example: Heed hid, head and had. When we pronounce the vowel in the word ‘heed’, the tongue is fairly close to the roof of the mouth. Hence this sort of vowel is classified into a high front vowel. When we pronounce the vowel in the word ‘hid’, the tongue is slightly less close to the roof of the mouth. Hence this sort of vowel is classified into a low front vowel.

When we articulate the vowels in the following words ‘father, good, food’, the tongue is close to the upper or back surface of the vocal tract. Hence these vowels are known as back vowels. If the body of the tongue is highest in the vowel then it is known as high back vowel. E.g.: ‘food’. If the body of the tongue is the lowest in the vowel then it is knows as low back vowel. E.g.: ‘father’. The articulation between the high back vowel and the low back vowel is known as a mid back vowel. E.g.: ‘good’.

Vowel – Roundedness:

The position of the lips play a vital role in articulating vowels especially it is rounded or not. When we pronounce the words ‘food and good’, we feel a movement of the lips in addition to the movement of the jaw. This movement is known as lip rounding. Vowels can be classified as rounded and unrounded or spread vowels. Example: who’d- rounded and heed-unrounded.

Vowel – Nasalization:

Nasalization of a vowel is the articulation of a vowel sound when the soft palate is lowered, so that the air travels through the mouth. Example: [ã] and [ṽ] are the nasalized equivalent of [a] and [v] respectively.

Vowel – Phonation:

Phonation is the voicing process of articulating a vowel, where the vocal cords produce certain produce certain periodic vibrations. We can also define phonation as any oscillatory sate of part of the larynx that modifies the airstream and results vibration. The various types of phonation are modal voice, creaky voice and breathy voice. Let us consider the following Example:

Breathy voice-he wears [ja̤], modal voice -tree - [já] and creaky voice –he carries – [ja̰].

Vowel- Tongue root Reaction:

When articulating some vowels, the root of the tongue has unique positions in some languages in Africa. There are two classifications in it, namely Advance Tongue Root and Reacted tongue root. The difference between these two resembles the tense and they are pronounced differently. During the process of tongue root reaction we find certain amount of tension in the vocal tracts.

Vowel - Tenseness / Checked vowels versus Free Vowels:

Tenseness is a unique vowel quality used to describe the differences in consonants. Let us consider the following words for example: ‘bit’ and ‘beat’. The vowel in the first word can be described as a tense vowel and the vowel in the second word is described as a lax vowel. We usually articulate the tense vowel with a advanced tongue root than the lax vowels.

Hence vowel sounds are classified with respect to the following factors:

The height of the body of the tongue.

The front- back position of the tongue.

The degree of lip rounding.

Here we also find that the articulation of vowels with respect to the position of the highest point of the tongue is not always satisfactory for few reasons. First, the high vowels do not have the same height and the back high vowel has approximately the same height as a mid front vowel. Second, the back vowels contrast significantly in their degree of backness. Third, there exist considerable differences in the shape of the tongue and in the front vowels and the back vowels. English has six diphthongs, five of which are falling diphthongs and one is of which is a rising diphthong.

Suprasegmentals:

Speech is composed of vowels and consonants. They form the syllables and the syllables form the words. There are other features superimposed on the syllables and they are known as suprasegmentals. It includes variations in stress and pitch. Variation in stress used in English language helps us to differentiate a noun and a verb. Example: ‘an insult’ versus ‘to insult’, ‘a pervert’ versus ‘to pervert’ and ‘an overflow’ versus ‘to overflow. In all the above examples the nouns are stressed in the first syllable and the verbs are stressed in the last syllable. Let us consider the

Example: "This is my father". Here we find the highest pitch occur on the first syllable of ‘father’ and the lowest on the second. Now let us consider the following question, "Is this your father?" Here we find the first syllable of ‘father’ is generally a low pitch and the last syllable is on a high pitch. Hence the pitch gives the variations in meanings of the same words.