THE SPEECH ORGAN

When we speak, we use our vocal tracts to produce sounds, or phones. Before examining the
sounds we make in English, it is necessary to understand what these organs are and how they
are used.

1. nasal cavity
2. lips
3. teeth
4. alveoldar ridge
5. hard palate
6. velum (soft palate)
7. uvula
8. apex (tip) of tongue
9. blade (front) of tongue
10. dorsum (back) of tongue
11. oral cavity
12. pharynx
13. epiglottis
14. larynx
15. vocal cords
16. glottis
are used.

The Organs of Speech Definition: The various organs of our mouth we use to produce speech
sounds are called the organs of speech or Speech organs.

Speech organs or articulators, produce the sounds of language. Organs used for speech include the
lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), uvula, glottis and various parts of the
tongue. They can be divided into two types: passive articulators and active articulators.
Descriptions for Different Organs of Speech

The study of speech sound is essentially important for getting the fundamental idea about producing
speech sounds. The various organs work in different ways to produce speech sounds

LIPS

Lips include the upper lip and the lower lip

The two lips serve for creating different sounds - mainly the labial, bilabial (e.g. /p/, /b/, /m/, /hw/, and
/w/) and labio-dental consonant sounds (e. g. /f/ and /v/ - and thus create an important part of the
speech apparatus.
TEETH

The small whitish structure found in jaws infornt of mouth. Immediately, after lips are teeth.
Teeth The upper and lower teeth are used to produce a lot of speech sounds, especially dental and
labiodentals consonants. For example: to produce the dental /ð/and /θ/, the tongue tip is pushed
between the upper and lower front teeth and to produce the labiodentals /f/, /v/, the upper front of
teeth are brought into contact with the lower lip

Tongue

The tongue is the most important articulator in the speech organs. It moves in different ways in
different shapes to produce speech sounds. Tongue is divided into five parts namely tip, blade, front,
back and root. Its movement in oral cavity plays important part in production of almost every speech
sound.
Alveolar ridge

It is basically a hard ridge behind the upper front teeth. It is between the roof of the mouth and the
upper teeth. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher than it feels, and
is covered with little ridges. For the sound /s/, air from the lungs passes continuously through the
mouth. But the tongue is raised sufficiently closed to the alveolar ridge to cause friction as it partially
blocks the air that passes. Moreover,sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as t and d) are
called alveolar.It also includes the area between the upper front teeth and the hard palate. To
produce alveolar consonant sounds such as /t d l n s z/, the alveolar ridge and the blade of the
tongue are used

Hard palate

Hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull,located in the roof of the mouth. It
is oft en called “the roof of the mouth”.Its smooth curved surface can felt with the
ti ongue. the interaction between the tongue and the hard palate is essential in the formation of
certain speech sounds, notably /t/, /d/, and /j/.
Soft Palate or Velum

It is in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth. Often in speech it is
raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. Its main function is to separate the nasal cavirty
from oral cavioty in order to produce the oral speech sounds.If this separation is incomplete, air
escapes in the nose during speech and the speevh is perceived as hyper nasal. The other important
thing about vekum is that it is one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue.When we
make the sounds k and g the toingue is in contact with thelower siode of the velum, and we call
these the velar consonants.
It should have holes forming that function during speech to separate the oral cavity (mouth) from the
nose, in order to produce the oral speech sounds. If this separation is incomplete, air escapes
through the nose during speech and the speech is perceived as hyper nasal.
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The pharynx

is like a tube beginning just above the larynx and ending two parts. The structure that holds and
manipulates the vocal cords. The "Adam's apple" in males is the bump formed by the front part of
the larynx
Speech Organs When we make a sound, there are certain verse of our vocal tract. They move, they block
the air and they help us to produce sounds (words, sentences or languages). Simply say that, organs that
produce sounds, we call them speech organs.

Oral cavity Oral cavity is the empty space of our mouth. It helps to produce sounds like, ba pa, tha ka.
The air passes through our mouth and the oral cavity helps to produce those sounds.

There are four cavities: gvv

Nasal cavity Nasal cavity is simply the empty space in our nose. When we produce different sounds, the
air passes through the nose. So, the empty space through what the air passes we call it nasal cavity.
Example, maa naa.

Pharynx and Larynx Pharynx is connected to the nasal cavity. It is behind the larynx. And the larynx is
simply the parts of Adam's apple and that parts are larynx. English do not produce much sounds by using
pharynx and larynx so they are very complex to understand. Basically, when air passes through the lung,
the air travels the vocal tract and this pharynx and larynx sometimes wide open or sometimes they are
close. Pharynx and Larynx are different from oral cavity and nasal cavity.

"Describe some of the parts in speech organs"

Articulators Articulators are basically the organs that take part in producing sounds. Like, lips, tongue or
teeth etc. There are two articulators, one is active articulators and another is passive articulators.

Active articulators Active articulator is the muscles inside our mouth. It is movable organs which are
principally the lip and the tongue (tongue tip, tongue blade, tongue front, tongue root). It takes part
directly to produce sounds.

Passive articulators There are some organs which are not muscles but bones inside our vocal tract.
These bones, we call them passive articulators. And they are immovable parts which are upper teeth,
hard palate, alveolar ridge, postalveolar region, soft palate and which remains motionless. Passive
articulators do not move because the bones do not move.
Uvula

The hanging ball’s full name is the “palatine uvula,” Referring to its location on your soft palate. it
functions in tandem with the back of the throat, the palate, and air coming up from the lungs to
create a number of guttural and other sounds. - In many languages, it closes to prevent air escaping
through the nose when making some sounds.
Glottis

combination of vocal folds and space in between the folds is known as glottis. as the vocal folds
vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a “buzzing” quality to the speech called voice or voicing or
pronunciation.  sound production involving only the glottis is called glottal. Example is the sound
/h/. The vibration produced is an essential component of voiced consonants as well as the vowels.If
the vocal folds are drawn apart, air flows between them causing no vibration. As in the production of
voiceless consonants.

The glottis is also important in the Valsalva maneuver.

Vocal Chords
In English, almost all of our sounds are made by obstructing the air in some way as it passes
from the lungs, up through the vocal cords and into the oral cavity.

The vocal cords are two thin membranes that stretch across the larynx. They open when we
breath, but they vibrate against each other when we make certain sounds.

Once the air has passed the vocal cords, it is restricted, often by some part of the tongue (8-10),
against the various parts of the oral cavity (11). Starting at the front of the mouth and moving
back into the throat, we have our lips (2), our teeth (3), the hard alveolar ridge directly behind the
teeth (4), the long, concave roof of the mouth, called the palate or sometimes the hard palate (5),
and then the velum, also called the soft palate (6). For most sounds the velum closes the passage
into the nasal cavity (1), but for nasal sounds the passage is left open so that air can resonate
there.
1. Nasal Cavity
In oral sounds, most air expelled via oral cavity (mouth). Typically the velum is raised at
the back of the mouth to block the passage of air into the nasal cavity.
In nasal sounds, on the other hand, the velum is lowered, to allow airflow through the
nasal cavity. In English, nasal consonants are accompanied by the blocking of airflow
through the oral cavity.