Definitions of speech on the Web:

address: the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience; "he listened to an
address on minor Roman poets"
(language) communication by word of mouth; "his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh
language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets"
something spoken; "he could hear them uttering merry speeches"
the exchange of spoken words; "they were perfectly comfortable together without speech"
manner of speaking: your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally; "his
manner of speaking was quite abrupt"; "her speech was barren of southernisms"; "I detected a
slight accent in his speech"
lecture: a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave
him a talking to"
actor's line: words making up the dialogue of a play; "the actor forgot his speech"
language: the mental faculty or power of vocal communication; "language sets homo sapiens
apart from all other animals"
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntactic
combination of lexicals and names that are drawn from very large (usually >10,000 different
words) vocabularies. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech
The Speech is an idealized language found throughout modern fantasy/science fiction. It is
considered a central language, the root of all tongues, and in some cases the true describing
words that made the universe. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Speech
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner
intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_(public_address)
Todd Thomas (born October 25, 1968), better known by the stage name Speech, is an American
rapper and musician. He is a member of the progressive hip hop group Arrested Development
and has released a number of solo albums.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_(rapper)
Speech was the fourth and last album of the British blues-rock band Steamhammer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_(album)
The faculty of speech; the ability to speak or to use vocalizations to communicate; A session of
speaking; a long oral message given publicly usually by one person
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/speech
or language impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired
articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child's
educational performance.
stnonline.com/resources/special-needs/definitions



Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntactic combination of
lexicals and names that are drawn from very large (usually >10,000 different words) vocabularies. Each
spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech
sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their set of speech sound units,
differ creating the existence of many thousands of different types of mutually unintelligible human
languages. Human speakers (polyglots) are often able to communicate in two or more of them. The
vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also provide humans with the ability to sing.
A gestural form of human communication exists for the deaf in the form of sign language. Speech in
some cultures has become the basis of a written language, often one that differs in its vocabulary, syntax
and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called diglossia. Speech in addition to its use in
communication, it is suggested by some psychologists such as Vygotsky is internally used by mental
processes to enhance and organize cognition in the form of an interior monologue.
Speech is researched in terms of the speech production and speech perception of the sounds used in
spoken language. Other research topics concern speech repetition, the ability to map heard spoken words
into the vocalizations needed to recreated that plays a key role in the vocabulary expansion in children
and speech errors. Several academic disciplines study these including acoustics, psychology, speech
pathology, linguistics, cognitive science, communication studies, otolaryngology and computer science.
Another area of research is how the human brain in its different areas such as the Broca's area and
Wernicke's area underlies speech.
It is controversial how far human speech is unique in that other animals also communicate with
vocalizations. While none in the wild have compatibly large vocabularies, research upon the nonverbal
abilities of language trained apes such as Washoe and Kanzi raises the possibility that they might have
these capabilities.
The origins of speech are unknown and subject to much debate and speculation.
Speech production
Main article: Speech production
In linguistics (articulatory phonetics), manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and
other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact. Often the concept is only used for the
production of consonants. For any place of articulation, there may be several manners, and therefore
several homorganic consonants.
Normal human speech is produced with pulmonary pressure provided by the lungs which creates
phonation in the glottis in the larynx that then is modified by the vocal tract into different vowels and
consonants. However humans can pronounce words without the use of the lungs and glottis in alaryngeal
speech of which there are three types: esophageal speech, pharyngeal speech and buccal speech (better
known as Donald Duck talk).
[edit] Speech perception
Main article: Speech perception
Speech perception refers to the processes by which humans are able to interpret and understand the
sounds used in language. The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields of phonetics and
phonology in linguistics and cognitive psychology and perception in psychology. Research in speech
perception seeks to understand how human listeners recognize speech sounds and use this information to
understand spoken language. Speech research has applications in building computer systems that can
recognize speech, as well as improving speech recognition for hearing- and language-impaired listeners.
Rosetta is an example of listening software.
[edit] Speech repetition
Main article: Speech repetition
Spoken vocalizations are quickly turned from sensory inputs into motor instructions needed for their
immediate or delayed (in phonological memory) vocal imitation. This occurs independently of speech
perception. This mapping plays a key role in enabling children to expand their spoken vocabulary and
hence the ability of human language to transmit across generations.
[1]

[edit] Speech errors
Main article: Speech error
Speech is a complex activity with the result that spoken errors are often made. These have been used by
scientists to understand the nature of the processes involved in its production.
[edit] Problems involving speech
See also: Speech-language pathology
There are several organic and psychological factors that can affect speech. Among these are:
1. Diseases and disorders of the lungs or the vocal cords, including paralysis, respiratory infections
(bronchitis), vocal fold nodules and cancers of the lungs and throat.
2. Diseases and disorders of the brain, including alogia, aphasias, dysarthria, dystonia and speech
processing disorders, where impaired motor planning, nerve transmission, phonological
processing or perception of the message (as opposed to the actual sound) leads to poor speech
production.
3. Hearing problems, such as otitis media effusion and auditory processing disorder can lead to
phonological problems.
4. Articulatory problems, such as stuttering, lisping, cleft palate, ataxia, or nerve damage leading to
problems in articulation. Tourette syndrome and tics can also affect speech. A lot of people also
have a slur in their voice
5. In addition to dysphasia, anomia and auditory processing disorder can impede the quality of
auditory perception, and therefore, expression. Those who are Hard of Hearing or deaf may be
considered to fall into this category.
[edit] References
1. ^ Masur EF. (1995). Infants' early verbal imitation and their later lexical development. Merrill-
Palmer Quarterly, 41, 286-306.OCLC 89395784