новая папка / Organs of speech and their functions

2. Organs of speech and their functions.

Cavities are empty spaces and function as resonators. There are four of them: the nasal cavity, the mouth cavity, the pharynx and the larynx.

The organs of speech that can move and change their position are called active They are: the lips, the tongue, the soft palate, the uvula, the lower jaw, the vocal cords and the lungs. They take an active part in the articulation of speech sounds.

The lips change the shape and size of the mouth opening. They can be rounded or unrounded.

The bulk of the tongue can move horizontally and vertically. For the purposes of phonetics, the tongue is divided into the tip, the blade, the front, the back and the root.

The soft palate with the uvula separates the mouth cavity from the nasal cavity. When the uvula is raised, the stream of air goes out through the mouth. When the uvula is lowered, the stream of air goes out through the nose.

The vocal cords are two muscles by the sides of the larynx. The space between them is called the glottis. When the vocal cords are tense and brought together, they vibrate and produce voice. When they are lax, no voice is produced. Vowels and voiced consonants are produced with vibration; voiceless consonants are produced without vibration.

The lungs push the stream of air out when we speak.

The passive organs of speech are the teeth, the alveoli and the hard palate. They are fixed and serve as places of articulation.