Sounds of speech. Articulatory and acoustic aspects of speech sounds. Functional aspect of sounds of speech. The phoneme theory.

1. Sounds of Speech. Production of speech. Organs of speech.

Language can perform its function as the most important means of human intercourse only as a language of sounds, because spoken words in any language consist of speech-sounds, and speech without words is impossible.

Akhmanova in her dictionary of linguistics terms defines a sound as the articulated and illegible element of a spoken chain produced by organs of speech.

Speech sounds – are the minimal units of a spoken speech chain, which are the result of a complex articulatory activity of a person and can be characterized by certain acoustic and perceptive (connected with the perception (recognition) of speech) properties.

Speech sounds are segmental units. In the process of analysis and characterizing of the sounds we should always take into account their articulatory, acoustic, perceptive and functional characteristics.

Most of the sounds are produced when we breathe out (pulmonic, egressive sounds) though there are languages which employ in-taking motion too.

The main source of a sound is the airstream which is pushed out of the lungs, up the wind pipe and into the larynx and it this point the stream should pass through vocal cords (vocal folds).

If we close them so that they touch each other slightly, the air passing between them make tem vibrate we will hear the voiced sound. By moving the vocal cords wide open we can stop the vibration and make the sound voiceless. By re-adjusting he vocal cords we may change the pitch of our voice, make it go up or down.

To understand how speech-sounds are produced we should have at least some knowledge of the organs of speech and their function.

The organs of speech are as follows: the mouth cavity (ротовая полость), the nasal cavity, the pharynx (глотка, зев), the lips, the teeth, the tongue, including the tip with the blade, the front of the tongue and the back of it, the roof of the mouth including the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, and the soft palate with the uvula; larynx (гортань) containing the vocal cords.

The organs of speech are divided into movable and fixed. The movable organs of speech take an active part in the articulation of speech-sounds and are called active organs of speech. The fixed organs of speech with which the active organs form obstruction are called passive organs of speech. They serve as points of articulation.

Articulation process or process of production can be described through 4 main stages: initiation process (lungs), phonation process (larynx), articulation process (in the oral cavity) and oral-nasal process (the velum and the nasal process)

1. Articulatory aspect of speech sounds.

Articulation process is described best of all and reflected in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Inside our mouth there are articulators which are used in speaking. The tongue, the lower jaw ad the lips can move and make contact with the immobile palate, the alveolar ridge and the teeth.

Articulatory all the sounds are subdivided into 2 classes: vowels and consonants, the main distinctions between which lie in the work of certain parts of vocal tract in the process of their articulation (obligatory participation of vocal cords in the articulation of vowels), and with the most typical articulatory movements (constrictive movements in the articulation of consonants and breaking up movements in the articulation of vowels).

The fundamental distinction between consonants and vowels is that the consonants make some obstruction to the flow of the air while vowels don’t.

To analyze a sound of speech from the point of view of its articulation and physiology, one should possess some knowledge of the articulatory mechanism and its work. The production of speech is impossible without 4 basic mechanisms or factors:

- The power mechanism

- The vibrator mechanism

- the resonator mechanism

- the obstruction mechanism

The first mechanism (the power mechanism) includes diaphragm (дайэфрэм), lungs, bronchi, a trachea (трэкие), pharynx, larynx, mouth and nasal cavity.

The vibrator mechanism (the mechanism that is responsible for voice production) consists of vocal cords. The height of our voice is basically controlled by vocal cords. Glisson defines three sounds which are made by vocal chords /h, j, glottal stop/.

Resonator mechanism includes pharynx, larynx, mouth and nasal cavities. The main aim of the mechanism is to resonate the air that goes through one of the cavities and as a result we may hear plosives, sonorants, etc.

The obstruction mechanism consists of the tongue, lips, teeth, soft palate with the uvula and an alveolar ridge. And of course it is clear from the very name of the mechanism that the main aim of it is to form an obstruction.

It is always necessary to bear in mind, that all four mechanisms work simultaneously, and therefore any sound is a product of all four mechanisms acting together.

When the stream of the air from the lungs gets into a pharynx it makes the vocal cords vibrate and, thus, vowel sounds and voiced consonants are produced. However, the air can pass through a larynx when the vocal cords are free and do not vibrate, and consequently voiceless consonants are produced.

The main articulatory difference between vowels and consonants is based on three basic articulatory criteria:

1. presence or absence of an obstruction for the air to penetrate;

2. concentration of a muscular tension or diffusive character of a muscular tension;

3. force of an exhalation.

On the basis of these three criteria it is possible to claim that:

Consonants are the sounds of speech in the articulation of which organs of speech form an obstruction, the muscular tension is concentrated in the place of obstruction, and force of exhalation is strong enough.

Vowels are the sounds in the articulation of which organs of speech do no form an obstruction, muscular tension is spread more or less equal over the mouth cavity oral guttural - mouth, force of an exhalation is not great.

Special attention should be given to the sounds that are called sonants.

Sonnants are the sounds that are located between vowels and consonants, possessing the features of the both. While articulating these sounds organs of speech form an obstruction, which is not narrow enough to produce noise. The muscular tension is strong in the place of obstruction, but force of exhalation is not great. The English sonants - m, l, n, w, r, j, ŋ.