Gimson Chapter 2. The Production of Speech.

The Physiological
Aspect.
The Speech Chain: Any manifestation of language by means of speech is
the result of a highly complicated series of events. In the first place, the
formulation of the concept will take place at a linguistic level, the first stage
may be said to be psychological. The nervous system transmits this
message to the so-called organs of speech. The second important stage is
said to be articulatory or physiological. The movement of our organs of
speech will create disturbances in the air, these varying air pressures may
be investigated and they constitute the third stage, the physical or
acoustic.
These stages will be reversed at the listening end: the reception of the
sound waves by the hearing apparatus (physiological) and the transmission
of the information along the nervous system to the brain, where the
linguistic interpretation of the message takes place (psychological).
The Speech Mechanism: The human being differs from other animals in
that he has been able to organize the range of sounds which we can emit
into a highly efficient system of communication. When we speak we make
use of organs whose primary physiological function is unconnected with
vocal communication, namely those situated in the respiratory tract. The
most usual source of energy for our vocal activity is provided by n air-stream
expelled from the lungs. All the essential sounds of English need lung air for
their production: our utterances are, imitations imposed by the capacity of
our lungs and by the muscles which control their action.
The air-stream provided by the lungs undergoes important modifications in
the upper stages of the respiratory tract before acquires the quality of a
speech sound: first of all, in the trachea windpipe, it passes through the
larynx, containing the so-called vocal folds. The larynx is a casing, formed
of cartilage and muscle, situated in the upper part of the trachea. The
opening between the folds is known as the glottis. Biologically, the vocal
folds act as a valve which is able to prevent the entry into the trachea and
lungs of any foreign body or which may have the
effect

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In using the vocal folds for speech, the human being has adapted and
elaborated this open-or-shut function in the following ways:

a) The glottis may be held tightly closed, with the lung air pent up below
it.
b) The glottis may be held open in such a way that, when the air-stream
is expelled through with sufficient energy, there is audible glottal
friction.
c) The action of the vocal folds consists in their role as a vibrator set in
motion by lung air: the production of voice, or phonation. In order to
achieve the effect of voice, the vocal folds are brought sufficiently
close together that they vibrate when subjected to air pressure from
the lungs. We are able, within limits, to vary the speed of vibration of
our vocal folds; we can alter the amplitude of the vibration.
d) A very quiet whisper may result merely from holding the glottis in the
voiceless position [/h/]. Such a whisper may in fact be uttered with an
almost total closure of the glottis and an escape of air in the region of
the arytenoids.
The air-stream, having passed through the larynx, is now subject to further
modification according to the shape assumed by the upper cavities of the
pharynx and mouth and according to whether the nasal cavity is brought
into use or not. These cavities function as the principal resonators of the
note produced in the larynx. The pharyngeal cavity extends from the top of
the larynx and esophagus, past the epiglottis and the root of the tongue, to
the region in the rear soft palate. The escape of air from the pharynx may
be effected in one of three ways:
a) The soft palate may be lowered, as in normal breathing, in which case
the air may escape through the nose and the mouth.
b) The soft palate may be lowered so that a nasal outlet is afforded to
the air stream, but a complete obstruction is made at some point in
the mouth, with the result that, although air enters all or part of the
mouth cavity, no oral escape is possible.
c) The soft palate may be held in its raised position. All normal English
sounds, with the exception of the nasal consonants mentioned, have
this oral escape.
Although all the cavities play an essential part in the production of speech
sounds, most attention has been paid to the behaviour of the cavity formed

by the mouth. The only boundaries are, in the front, the teeth, in the upper
part, the hard palate; and in the rear, the pharyngeal wall. The remaining
organs are movable: the lips, the various parts of the tongue, and the soft
palate with its pendent uvula. The lower jaw, too, is capable of very
considerable movement. The roof of the mouth is divided intro 3 parts:
1. Moving backwards from the upper teeth: alveolar.
2. The bony arch which forms the hard palate and which varies in size
and arching from one individual to another.
3. The soft palate or velum which is capable of being raised or lowered.
The lips constitute the final orifice of the mouth cavity. If they are held apart,
the positions they assume may be:
1. Held sufficiently close together over all their length that friction
occurs between them.
2. Spread lip position e.g see
3. Neutral position e.g get
4. Open position e.g card
5. Close rounded position e.g do
6. Open rounded position e.g got
The tongue is the most flexible organ, and is divided into three sections: the
front, the back and the centre. The tapering section facing the teeth ridge is
called the blade and its extremity the tip. The tip and blade region is known
as the apex. The edges of the tongue are known as the rims.

Gimson Chapter 4. Description and Classification of Speech Sounds.

Phonetic description: A speech sound has at least three stages available
for investigation: the production, transmission and reception stages. A
complete description of a sound should, therefore, include information
concerning all three stages.
Vowel and consonant: The articulation of vowels which would prevent the
escape of the air stream through the mouth or give rise to audible friction;
all other sounds are consonants.
From the practical phonetic standpoint, we distinguish two types of speech
sound:
1. The consonantal type: the one which is most easily described in terms of
articulation. Such sounds may be produced with or without vocal fold
vibration and very often have a noise component in the acoustic sense.
2. The vowel type: depending largely on very slight variations of tongue
position that is not accompanied by any closure or narrowing in the
speech tract. Such sounds are generally voiced, having no nose
component but rather a characteristic patterning of formants.
Questions about the consonantal type: terico
Egressive pulmonic consonantal sounds: Most speech sounds, and all
normal English sounds, are made with egressive lung air. At any point of
articulation, a consonantal articulation may be voiceless or voiced.
Place of articulation: The chief points of articulation are the following:

Bilabial: the two lips are the primary articulators. [p,b,m]

Labio-dental: the lower lip articulates with the upper teeth. [f,v]

Dental: the tongue tip and rims articulate with the upper teeth [0,d]

Alveolar: the blade, or tip and blade, of the tongue articulate with the
alveolar ridge. [t,d,l,n,s,z]

Post-alveolar: the tip (and rims) of the tongue articulate with the rear
part of the alveolar ridge.[ ]

Retroflex: the tip of the tongue is curled back to articulate with the part
of the hard palate immediately behind the alveolar ridge.

Palato-alveolar: the blade, or the tip and the blade, of the tongue
articulate with the alveolar ridge and there is at the same time a raising
of the front of the tongue towards the hard palate.

Palatal: the front of the tongue articulates with the hard palate.

Velar: the back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate.

Uvular: the back of the tongue articulates with the uvula.

Glottal: an obstruction, or a narrowing causing friction but not vibration,

between the vocal cords.

Manner of articulation:

Complete closure: plosive, affricate, nasal.

Intermittent closure: roll, flap

Partial closure: lateral

Narrowing: fricative

Semi-vowels and frictionless continuants: Semi vowels [w,j] are usually

included in the consonantal category on functional grounds, but from the
point of view of phonetic description they are more properly treated as
vowel glides. Frictionless continuants or approximants [ ] have neither the
closure nor the noise component characteristic of consonantal segments;
they are variants of consonantal types.
Fortis and Lenis: a voiceless/voiced pair are distinguished not only by the
presence or absence of voice but also by the degree of breath and muscular
effort involved in the articulation. The voiced consonants which are
articulated with relatively weak energy are lenis; and those which are
voiceless and strong are fortis.
Classification or egressive pulmonic consonantal articulations: the
essential factors to be included in any classificatory chart refer to: the place
of articulation, the manner of articulation, the presence or absence of voice
and the position of the soft palate.
Egressive glottalized consonants [h, ]: speech sounds may be
articulated without the passage of lung air into the upper speech tract. In
the production of these sounds, known as glottalized or ejective, the glottis
is closed so that lung air is contained beneath it.

The vowel type: this category is made with a voiced egressive air-stream.
Vowels description must include:
1. The position of the soft palate
2. The kind of aperture formed by the lips
3. The part of the tongue which is raised and the degree of raising
The cardinal vowel scale in the cardinal vowel system, created by Daniel
Jones, the basis of it is physiological. Three auditory equi-distant points were
established from the lowest to the highest position. A scale of eight primary
cardinal vowels was set up.
The front series (I,e,3,a) and (a) of the back series are pronounced with
spread or open lips, whereas the remaining three members of the back
series have varying degrees of lip rounding. A secondary series can be
obtained by reversing the lip position. In addition, a pair of cardinal vowels,
unrounded and rounded has been established. It is possible to give a visual
representation of the vowel relationships on a chart which is based on the
cardinal vowel tongue positions. The internal triangle is made by dividing
the top line into three equal sections and drawing lines parallel to the two
sounds, so that they meet near the base of the figure.

Nasality: a vowel description must indicate whether the vowel is purely

oral or whether it is nasalized. The eighteen cardinal vowels mentioned may
all be transformed into their nasalized counterparts if the soft palate is
lowered.
Relatively pure vowels and gliding vowels
The classification of vowel type articulations