SPEECH PRODUCTION MECHANISM

Stages of the Speaking Process:

2. PHONATION STAGE - takes place when voice is produced in speaking as the expiratory air stream from
the lungs goes up through the trachea or windpipe to the larynx.
Organs responsible:
 Larynx is a principal organ of phonation found at the top of the trachea. Its protrusion is known as the
"Adam's apple."
 Vocal Cords are a pair of bundles of muscles and cartilages that opens and closes at various degrees.
 Trachea is also known as the windpipe that serves as the passageway of air going up from the lungs.
3. RESONATION STAGE - The voice produced in phonation is weak. It becomes strong and rich only when
amplified and modified by human resonators. Resonation is the process of voice amplification and
modification. (Resonators: Upper part of the larynx, pharynx, Oral cavity, Nasal cavity)
 Pharynx is a common passageway for air and food located behind the nose and mouth and includes the
cavity at the tongue's back. (Divisions of the pharynx: Nasal pharynx – Oral pharynx – Laryngeal pharynx)
 Nose consists of the external and internal portions. Nostrils – openings of the external nose while the Nasal
cavity is the internal nose directly behind the external nose through which the air passes on its way to the
pharynx.
 Mouth is divided into the vestibule and the oral cavity proper. The vestibule is felt by placing the tongue tip
outside the teeth but inside the lips. The oral cavity is felt by retracting the tongue, closing the jaws, and
moving the tongue.

4. ARTICULATION STAGE - occurs when the tone produced in the larynx is changed into specific sounds.
This is the result of the movement of the articulators towards the points of articulation. This stage also
gives shape to the sounds produced.
 Lips are highly flexible that can be moved into numerous positions essential to articulation.
 Teeth serve as critical surfaces in articulation. They are embedded in the alveolar ridge or gum ridges of
the oral cavity.
 Alveolar ridge- is the hard ridge behind the upper front teeth. It is between the roof of the mouth and the
upper teeth.
 Dome is also known as the hard palate, the bony roof of the mouth, and serves as an important surface
against which the tongue makes contact.
 Velum (soft palate) - separates the nasal pharynx from the oral cavity. It is a flexible curtain attached along
the rear border of the hard palate.
 Uvula is a small nub on the lower border of the soft palate and a movable tip at the midline of the soft
palate's free border.
 Tongue is a flexible organ consisting of muscles, glands, and connective tissues. Its parts are the: Apex or
tip, Blade or Front • Center • Back • root.
 Glottis is the elongated space between the vocal cords.

PHONETICS

 Phonetics – the study of speech sounds, how they vary, and how to describe them.
 Phonemes – the unit of sound that makes a difference in the meaning of a word; distinctive language
sounds. These are the unconscious representation of the phonological units of a language; psychologically
real sounds.
 Consonants – sounds characterized by closure or obstruction of the vocal tract.
 Vowel – sounds characterized by an open vocal tract, with no closure and obstruction.
 Minimal pair – is a pair of words that differ only in one sound in the same position.
Ex. seal-zeal, bin-bean, hat-had
 Phonemic transcription – is a written recording of sounds using the distinctive phonemes of the language,
resulting in a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and a symbol. This is why we will use IPA
(International Phonetic Alphabet) to transcribe any sounds. IPA is a system of symbols that represent all
of the sounds made in the speech.
 Three ways in describing a consonant:
1. Voicing – controlling of the vibration of the vocal cords as air passes through to make
speech sounds
2. Place of articulation – the use of the throat and articulators in making sounds.
3. Manner of articulation – how the sounds are made with respect to airflow.

CONSONANTS
VOICED AND VOICELESS
 All consonants are either voiced or voiceless. The airflow coming out of the lungs can meet resistance at
the larynx or voice box. The resistance can be controlled by the different positions and tensions in vocal
cords or folds, which are two muscular bands of tissue that stretch from front to back in the larynx behind
Adam's apple.
 When breathing, the vocal folds are relaxed and spread apart to allow air to flow freely from the lungs.
When you have the right amount of air and tension of the cords' muscles, they vibrate when speaking. This
is called voicing. Articulators – various parts of the mouth and throat used to make speech sounds.
 Activity: touch your throat, make the sound [s], and then keep your hand there and switch to [z]. What have
you observed?
 On the next page is the IPA symbol of consonants categorized according to the manner vs. place of
articulation and generally grouped according to natural class. Provided later on is also the IPA chart for
vowels commonly popularized as the Vietor Triangle but simply illustrated in its succeeding chart.

Note: These symbols are preferably used for the palatal affricates and fricatives:
/š/= /ʃ/; /ž/= /ʒ/; /č/= /tʃ/; /ǰ/= /dʒ/

PLACE OF ARTICULATION
 In addition to vocal cords, all the other organs of the mouth and throat (lips, tongue, teeth) have roles in
making a sound. It's also possible to describe where in the vocal tract a constriction (tightening of muscles)
is made:
1. Bilabial – from the Latin. Bi- meaning two and labial meaning lips, sounds are made both with lips.
Sometimes /ʍ/ and /w/ are also classified as velar or labiovelar since the back of the tongue is raised
toward the velum. See the previous lesson for speech organs.
2. Labiodental – sounds are made with the lower lip against the upper front teeth.
3. Interdental – sounds are made with the tip of the tongue between the front teeth.
4. Alveolar – tongue tip at or near the alveolar ridge
5. Palatal – made with the tongue near the palate, or hard palate to be exact (the hard part of the roof of
the mouth).
6. Velar – tongue near the velum or soft palate.
7. Glottal – made at the glottis.
MANNER OF ARTICULATION
 This is how the sounds are made, especially with respect to airflow:
1. Stops – sounds are made by obstructing the airstream completely in the oral cavity.
2. Fricative – made by forming a nearly complete stoppage of the airstream.
3. Affricates – made by briefly stopping the airstream completely and then releasing the articulators
slightly so that friction is produced.
4. Nasal – made by lowering the velum and letting the airstream pass primarily through the nasal cavity.
5. Glides – made with only a slight closure of the articulators.
6. Liquids - are made when an obstruction is formed by the articulators, but it is narrow enough to stop the
airflow or cause friction. /l/ is called lateral liquid since it touches the mouth's roof while /r/ is bunched
liquid since most Americans, the tongue is bunched up under the palate.
NATURAL CLASS (see meaning in key takeaways)
1. Labials – include bilabial and labiodentals. Based on the table, /p, b, f, v, m, w, and ʍ/ are labials.
Moreover, /m, w, and ʍ/ are labials and sonorants at the same time.
2. Sonorants – include nasals, liquids and glides.
3. Obstruents – include stops, fricative and affricates.
VOWELS
 English has between 14-20 vowels depending on the dialect. Position labels "high, mid, and low" refer to
the tongue's position in the mouth.
DIPHTHONGS
 English has phonemic diphthongs, a 2-part vowel, and a glide in one syllable. The most common are /ay/,
/aw/, /oy/.
 Some diphthongs are just written in /e/ and /o/ respectively for /ey/ and /ow/. Other diphthongs include /iy/
and /uw/.
IPA vowel Variation for
and diphthong
Description Examples
diphthong sound + glide
symbol /w/ & /y/
i iy Long sounding beat, receive
ɪ Short sounding bit, been
e ey bait,
ɛ bet, said
ӕ bat, have
ɜ Earth, journey
ǝ Unstressed shwa tuna, about
sound
ʌ Stressed shwa blood,love
sound
a father, body
u uw Long sounding boot, through
ʊ Short sounding put, could
o ow low,
ɔ law, daughter
aɪ ay Like
ɔɪ oy boil
aʊ aw how

PHONOLOGY

 Phonology – the study of the system of rules underlying the sound patterns in a language; the study of the
sound system and the processes we use to discover the unconscious systems underlying our speech.
 Aspiration – a puff of air that accompanies the initial voiceless consonants in a word such as tick.
 Allophone – predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme; realization of a phoneme. While phonemes are
“psychologically real," allophones are actual sound. On the example given, there is only one phoneme /p/,
but it indicates it has two allophones.
 English /t/ has allophonic variations. For Americans, the /t/ in words little, battle, butter and writer is a sound
called flap indicated by the symbol /ɾ/. This sound occurs when the 2 nd vowel is unstressed. The ‘little’
would be now transcribed as [lɪɾǝl].
 Flap – the manner of consonant articulation similar to a stop, but with no air pressure build-up and no air
release.
 Phonological rule – description of when a predictable variation of a particular sound occurs.
 The aspiration of /p/ occurs automatically in English, where it is in a certain position with respect to other
sounds and is what we call phonological rule. Generally, the rule there is /p/ becomes aspirated when it
occurs at the beginning of a stressed syllable. Otherwise, it is unaspirated.
 Here are the common types of phonological rules:
1. Assimilation – the process of making one sound more like a neighboring one with respect to some
feature.
Processes under Assimilation:
A. Vowel Nasalization – a vowel becomes nasalized when it precedes nasal consonants (n or ŋ).
Ex. man
B. Alveolar Nasal Assimilation – many adults, especially in casual speech, assimilate the place of
articulation of the nasal to the following labial consonants in the word 'sandwich.'
Ex. [sӕndwɪtʃ] becomes /sӕmwɪtʃ/ the alveolar nasal /n/ assimilates to the bilabial /w/ by changing the
latter to a bilabial /m/.
C. Alveolar Stop Assimilation – In casual speech, the /n/ of a word like can (among others) can
assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant. Compare the ff:
I can be ready in five minutes. can be /kӕn bi/ - /kӕm bi/
I can go with you. can go /kӕn go/ - /kӕŋ go/
D. Palatalization – a process that results from an interaction between either front vowels or a /y/
glide and a neighboring alveolar consonant, resulting in a fricative or affricate palatal consonant.
Formula: alveolar stop + high front vowel or glide = palatalized fricative or affricate
Ex. t+yu= tʃ as in mature and nature
 d+y= dʒ as in could you, would you, did you /kʊdʒu/
Similarly, alveolar stops that are followed by /r/ become palatalized.
Ex. d+r= dʒ as in drink /dʒɪŋk/ or t+r= tʃ as in truck /tʃʌk/
Lastly, where most speakers make this Assimilation all the time, we can say the language has
changed. We do not say netyǝn, instead of/neʃǝn/ or gresyǝs instead /greʃǝs/
E. Voicing Assimilation – frequently occurs in English. Voiced /v/ of the word have assimilated to
the voiceless /t/.
Ex. /hӕv tu/ becomes /hӕf tu/
The same Assimilation appears for the /d/ of 'used to' which becomes /t/ and the /z/ of 'has in'
has to becomes /s/.
Finally, for plural endings /s/, /z/, and /ǝz/:
/s/ follows words ending in /p, t, k, f, θ/ voiceless sounds
/z/ follows /b, m, d, n, g, ŋ, l, r, ay/ voiced sounds
/ǝz/ follows /s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ sibilants
Sibilants – the natural class of hissing or hushing sounds in a language that includes alveolar
and palatal fricatives and affricates.
2. Dissimilation – cause two neighboring sounds to become less alike with respect to some feature. "[An]
example of dissimilation is the substandard pronunciation of chimney as chimley, with the second of two
nasals changed to an [l].
"Consider [an] example of dissimilation of liquid consonants when the suffix -al attached to
some Latin nouns to make adjectives. The regular suffixation process gives us pairs like the
following: orbit/orbital, person/personal, culture/cultural, electric/electrical. However, when an /l/
precedes the ending anywhere in the root, the ending is changed from -al to –ar due to dissimilation:
single/singular, module/modular, luna/lunar."
The ultimate dissimilation is the complete loss of one sound because of its proximity to another
similar sound. A frequent example in present-day standard English is the omission of one of two [r]
sounds from words like cate(r)pillar, Cante(r)bury, rese(r)voir, terrest(r)ial, southe(r)ner, barbitu(r)ate,
gove(r)nor,and su(r)prised."
3. Insertion (epenthesis) – a process causing segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to
the phonemic form of a word.
An example is a voiceless stop: It occurs between a nasal and a voiceless fricative when a voiceless
stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted.
Hamster /hӕmpstɜ/
Something /sʌmpθɪŋ/
Strength /strɛŋθ/
Insertion of /y/: in some dialect, /y/ is inserted after initial alveolar sounds and preceding high vowels,
so words like news, Tuesday, and duke are pronounced /nyuz/, /tyuzde/, /dyuk/. However, it appears to
be gradually on its way out of the language with /y/ disappearing like 'news' but not yet in others like few
and puny.
4. Deletion causes a segment present at the phonemic level to be removed at the word's phonetic level.
Deletion of /r/ after vowels: like ‘car’ yard’ becoming /ka/ and /yad/. This common, usually in Britain.
Deletion of fricative next to fricative: fifths become /fɪfs/ or /fɪθs/
Haplology - is the name given to the change in which a repeated sequence of sounds is simplified to a
single occurrence. For example, if the word 'haplology' were to undergo haplology (were to be
haplologized), it would reduce the sequence lolo to lo, haplology > haplogy. Some real examples are:
library to 'libry' [laɪbrɪ] and probably to 'probly' [prɔblɪ].
Deletion of Syllable-final consonant clusters: examples are ‘fast pitch’ become /fӕs pɪtʃ/, friend
becomes /frɛn/, grandma into /grӕnma or grӕma/
5. Fronting – causes a segment produced in the back of the mouth to change to a segment produced at
the front of the mouth.
Ex. running becomes /rʌnɪn/
6. Exchange rules (metathesis) – reorder sounds or syllables.
Examples and Observations on Metathesis
"Wasp used to be 'waps'; bird used to be 'brid' and horse used to be 'hros.' Remember this the next time
you hear someone complaining about 'aks' for ask or 'nucular' for nuclear, or even 'perscription.' It's
called metathesis. It's a very common, perfectly natural process." -- David Shariatmadari