English Phonetics and Phonology I – I.E.S.

“Aguilares”- 2012

Names: Date:
25/05/2020
Abboud Ailin D.N.I.: 43.967.046
Flores Bazán, Emilse Fernanda D.N.I: 38.509.039
Flores, Luciana Verónica D.N.I.: 43.432.527
González Álvaro D.N.I: 43.771.836
López, Facundo José D.N.I.: 43.771.900
Nieto, Eva del C. D.N.I.:36.040.080
Palacios, Florencia Agustina D.N.I.: 43.163.222

“ORGANS OF SPEECH” Quiz:

A) Matching. Match the speech organs with their function.

1. Vocal cords a. Motor or engine

2. Lungs b. Amplifier
3. Pharynx c. Food/Air Passage selector
4. Lower jaw d. Vibrator set
5. Epiglottis e. Shaper of oral cavity

B) The odd-one-out. All the following descriptions are true, except for one. Find
it and justify why (on a separate sheet of paper)

1. a) The pharynx is located above the larynx. TRUE

b) Sounds in the English language are produced by this articulator. FALSE:
The very back of the tongue may be pulled backward into the pharynx, thus
modifying the letter’s shape and affecting sound quality. The tongue may
come so close to the back wall of the pharynx that air passing through causes
friction, two such sounds, one voiced, one voiceless, occur in
Arabic. Sounds made in this way are known: as pharyngeal sounds.
c) It can be divided into three areas for the sake of phonetic study. TRUE
2. a) There are many sounds in English which are produced in the lips. TRUE
b) The lips can adopt more than one position. TRUE
c) They consist of an active articulator and a passive articulator. FALSE: The
lips are active articulator. The lips are capable of the same degrees of
movement as the tongue, they come into firm contact as for p or m, they can
be kept right out of the way so that they do not interfere with the passage of
air at all, and they can take up any intermediate position. The lower lip can
1
 English Phonetics and Phonology I – I.E.S. “Aguilares”- 2012

Names: Date:
25/05/2020
Abboud Ailin D.N.I.: 43.967.046
Flores Bazán, Emilse Fernanda D.N.I: 38.509.039
Flores, Luciana Verónica D.N.I.: 43.432.527
González Álvaro D.N.I: 43.771.836
López, Facundo José D.N.I.: 43.771.900
Nieto, Eva del C. D.N.I.:36.040.080
Palacios, Florencia Agustina D.N.I.: 43.163.222

contact the upper incisors an is f, and the two lips can assume various
shapes, close-rounded as at the beginning of wood, open-rounded as in a
vigorous pronunciation of hot, spread as in an equally vigorous pronunciation
of see, and neutral as for ah.
3. a) The root of the tongue is involved in sound production. FALSE: No,
because this part (root of the tongue) is not flexible. Theirs movable parts are:
the blade, the tip, the front and back of the tongue.
b) It is possible to spread the tongue laterally, producing lateral sounds. TRUE
c) Nasal sounds also involve a contact of a part of the tongue with an area of
the mouth cavity. TRUE

C) Fill-in the gaps. Complete the gaps with only one word:
1. The most prominent part of the larynx, and a section of the Thyroid
Cartilage, is called ADAM’S APPLE
2. The raising of the soft palate allows the production of ORAL sounds. In
contrast, its lowering corresponds with the production of NASAL sounds.
3. The technical term for incoming air is INSPIRATION.
4. When the vocal cords are tightly closed and air is pent up below, this
sound comes out with an explosion. We call it GLOTTAL STOP.
5. The process by which we take in oxygen is called INHALATION.

D) Complete the following chart with examples from the theory

CAVITIES: THE ORAL CAVITITY, THE NASAL CAVITY AND PHARYNX.

ARTICULATORS:
ACTIVE: TONGUE, UPPER INCISORS, HARD PALATE, LIPS, LUNGS,
VOCAL CORDS, VELAR.

2
 English Phonetics and Phonology I – I.E.S. “Aguilares”- 2012

Names: Date:
25/05/2020
Abboud Ailin D.N.I.: 43.967.046
Flores Bazán, Emilse Fernanda D.N.I: 38.509.039
Flores, Luciana Verónica D.N.I.: 43.432.527
González Álvaro D.N.I: 43.771.836
López, Facundo José D.N.I.: 43.771.900
Nieto, Eva del C. D.N.I.:36.040.080
Palacios, Florencia Agustina D.N.I.: 43.163.222

PASSIVE: SOFT PALATE OR VELUM, LOWER INCISORS, LOWER JAW,

ALVEOLAR RIDGE.

E) Summary. Write a summary for the following organs of speech. Use the
features between brackets () to narrow down your description:
 The larynx (physiological characteristics, boundaries, structure)
 The lips (structure, movements, sounds produced)

 Larynx:

- (Physiological characteristics) The larynx is a fairly rigid box made up of

cartilages, situated at the top of the trachea and continuous with it so
that all air passing in and out of the lungs must pass through it. Inside
the larynx are the first of the structures which can interfere with the air
stream, the vocal cords, they consist of two bands of muscle and
connective tissue lying opposite to each other at the top of the trachea,
fixed adjacent to each other at the front (the ‘Adam’s apple’) end but
horizontally moveable at the back, where they are attached to the
arytenoid cartilages.

- (Boundaries and estructure)

Figure 6 gives a general view of the vocal organs above the larynx.

3
 English Phonetics and Phonology I – I.E.S. “Aguilares”- 2012

Names: Date:
25/05/2020
Abboud Ailin D.N.I.: 43.967.046
Flores Bazán, Emilse Fernanda D.N.I: 38.509.039
Flores, Luciana Verónica D.N.I.: 43.432.527
González Álvaro D.N.I: 43.771.836
López, Facundo José D.N.I.: 43.771.900
Nieto, Eva del C. D.N.I.:36.040.080
Palacios, Florencia Agustina D.N.I.: 43.163.222

The general lay-out is of a single tube-like cavity, the pharynx, branching into
two other cavities, the nasal above and the oral below. The pharynx stretches
from the top of the larynx up to the back of the nasal cavity and serves mainly
as the container of a volume of air which can be set into vibration in sympathy
with vibrations coming from the vocal cords. Like the strings of a violin without
the body of the instrument, the vocal cords, di forced from the upper cavities,
would make very little noise. It is the sympathetic vibration (or resonance) of
the air contained in the upper cavities (or in the body of the violin) which
amplifies some of the characteristics of the vibrations produced in the larynx
(or by the strings) and gives them strength, and therefore gives a particular
quality to the resulting sound. The violin body is fixed swallowing and helps to
shoot food into the food-passage, but it has no function in speech and we may
therefore ignore it.
Figure 7: Action of soft palate

(Nasopharynx, soft palate raised and lowered, oro-pharynx)

4
 English Phonetics and Phonology I – I.E.S. “Aguilares”- 2012

Names: Date:
25/05/2020
Abboud Ailin D.N.I.: 43.967.046
Flores Bazán, Emilse Fernanda D.N.I: 38.509.039
Flores, Luciana Verónica D.N.I.: 43.432.527
González Álvaro D.N.I: 43.771.836
López, Facundo José D.N.I.: 43.771.900
Nieto, Eva del C. D.N.I.:36.040.080
Palacios, Florencia Agustina D.N.I.: 43.163.222

 The lips
- (Structure) are capable of the same degrees of movement as the
tongue — they come into firm contact as for p or m, they can be kept
right out of the way so that they do not interfere with the passage of air
at all, and they can take up any intermediate position.
- (Movements) The lower lip can contact the upper incisors as in f, and
the two lips can assume various shapes (Figure 9), close-rounded as at
the beginning of wood, open-rounded as in a vigorous pronunciation of
hot, spread as in an equally vigorous pronunciation of see, and neutral
as for ah.
- (Sounds Produced) These different shapes have a strong influence on
sound quality: say a vigorous eeeee, then, keeping everything else as
still as possible, close-round the lips; the quality of the vowel sound will
now be like that of the French vowel in lune ('moon'). For eeeee the
front of the tongue needs to be raised close to the hard palate in most
kinds of English any such raising of the front of the tongue is invariably
accompanied by a spread or neutral lip position and it is only.
(Figure 9 y 10)

5
 English Phonetics and Phonology I – I.E.S. “Aguilares”- 2012

Names: Date:
25/05/2020
Abboud Ailin D.N.I.: 43.967.046
Flores Bazán, Emilse Fernanda D.N.I: 38.509.039
Flores, Luciana Verónica D.N.I.: 43.432.527
González Álvaro D.N.I: 43.771.836
López, Facundo José D.N.I.: 43.771.900
Nieto, Eva del C. D.N.I.:36.040.080
Palacios, Florencia Agustina D.N.I.: 43.163.222