Languages & Linguistics
Voice Articulation
Voice articulation refers to the production of speech sounds through the movement and positioning of the vocal organs, such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords. It involves the precise coordination of these organs to create specific sounds and is essential for clear and effective communication in spoken language. Effective voice articulation is important for language learners and public speakers to convey their message accurately.
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8 Key excerpts on "Voice Articulation"
- Prafull Dhondopant Kulkarni(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Society Publishing(Publisher)
Figure 1.1: Image showing an ancient syllabary. Source: Image by Wikipedia. The forms of movement that produce each step of the dance of the articulators are articulatory gestures. To define a dance step, you would designate which component of the body to move (left foot, right arm, etc.), and then designate the position to which it moves (left foot slides back, right arm raised overhead). In the same way, to define a vocal tract gesture, you reject the articulator and designate the position, or goal, toward which it moves. In most cases, for verbalization, this goal is a constriction in some part of the vocal tract, which will result in some particular sound. When we define the position to which the articulator moves (the coalescence of active articulator and passive articulator), we are defining the place of articulation. When we define the type of constriction that is made (consummate stoppage of air vs. narrow channel, for instance) we are defining the manner of articulation. In integration with the place and manner of articulation of a vocal tract constriction, the definition of a verbalization sound will additionally Basics of Articulation: Manner and Place in English 5 include the states of the velum and larynx, as well as the method of getting the air to move. Every verbalization sound, then, is defined by a particular amalgamation of the following components: • Airstream mechanism; • State of the larynx; • State of the velar port; • Combination of active and passive articulator (i.e., place of articulation); • Manner of articulation. 1.2. BRANCHES OF PHONETICS • Articulatory Phonetics: The branch of phonetics dealing 4with the producing of sounds is called articulatory phonetics. In verbalization, air passes through an involute passageway consisting of the lungs, the windpipe, the vocal folds, the throat, the mouth, and the nasal perceiver.
eBook - PDF- Ken Lodge(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Continuum(Publisher)
I will put technical terms in bold on their first occurrence; they are also listed in the glossary (pp. 230-239). In working through all the possibilities of human articulation it is impor-tant both to hear examples of them and to try to produce them yourself. This is best done with the aid of the phonetician teaching you. 2.1 The lungs and airstream mechanisms Speech is produced by moulding and moving the articulators of all kinds around an airstream. In most cases this air comes from the lungs. During speech the volume of air in the lungs has to be greater than is used in ordinary breathing (try speaking with just normal breath and little will happen). Humans Articulation 15 are capable of a special breathing pattern which can take in a large amount of air and release it in a controlled way over a period of time, usually more than enough time to utter a sentence or two. Such air, when it is expelled from the lungs for linguistic purposes, is called egressive pulmonic air. This is by far the easiest method of producing speech, especially as it can continue over quite a period, but it is not the only way in which air can be used. There are two ways in which air can be trapped in the oral cavity: (i) by closing the glottis and making some other closure in the mouth; and (ii) by closing the velum and making a velar closure with the back of the tongue, and making some other closure in advance of this. (i) produces a glottalic airstream, (ii) a velaric airstream. The glottalic air-stream is used to produce two types of sound, implosives and ejectives; the velaric airstream is used to produce clicks. I shall deal first with the egressive pulmonic airstream and the modulating mechanisms, and then consider the more restricted types of airstream at the end of the chapter. 2.2 The vocal cords and the glottis Within the larynx are the vocal cords (also called vocal folds), two muscular flaps which can be moved into various positions to interfere with the airflow.
- Alain Marchal(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Wiley-ISTE(Publisher)
the tongue, the lips, the larynx, the velum are coordinated” (p. 23). Similarly, articulatory phonology or gestural phonology formulates the organizational principles of coordinated movement in speech in dynamic rather than physiological terms (Browman and Goldstein, 1977). An articulatory “gesture” is an abstract characterization of articulatory movements in which actions are coordinated to achieve a specific task. Each task is precisely defined by the parameters of a set of equations from a model of task dynamics. When the control structure is established, the equations determine the articulatory coordination so that the gestural task of forming a particular constriction can be achieved independently of peripheral constraints. The same structure is used for the description of both the phonological contrast and the articulatory action. Articulatory phonology offers a unifying operational vision of speech production and thus goes beyond the traditional distinction between phonetics and phonology. It suggests articulatory timing or chronology as an intrinsic property of gestures. In this framework, it treats coarticulation as a phenomenon of co-production, as an inherent feature of gestural dynamics. Speech is a behavior that should be studied in its own right. By respecting this condition, it is possible to formulate a more comprehensive theory of linguistic phonetics. In it, phonological representation is a plan for dynamic behavior, as Coarticulation and Co-production 173 opposed to a sequence of abstract static “objects”. “Behavior” is not the phonetic effects of phonological causes: it is produced and intentionally determined by the speaker in a structured and coordinated way. 7.4. The nature of coarticulation phenomena Coarticulation is generally defined in the literature as the influence of one phonetic segment on another. At first it looks as though such a definition would be too general to refute, with the possible exception of the term “phonetic”.
eBook - PDFPhonetics
Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception
- Henning Reetz, Allard Jongman(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception , Second Edition. Henning Reetz and Allard Jongman. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Companion website: www.wiley.com/go/reetz/phonetics An important component of phonetics is the description of sounds. One mode of description is articulatory; that is, it involves an articulatory description of how speech sounds are produced. First of all, the production of any kind of sound requires a source of energy. For speech this energy source is the flow of air. For most sounds of the world’s languages, this airflow is generated by the lungs, which are described in detail in Section 5.1. Air flows from the lungs through the trachea (windpipe) and then through the larynx (voice box), where the vocal folds are located. The larynx and its role in the complex process of voice formation are discussed in detail in Section 5.2. Finally, the physiological details of the upper part of the speaking apparatus, namely the pharynx (throat), oral tract (mouth), and nasal tract (nose) are presented in Section 5.3. In this chapter, aspects of the speaking apparatus that are easy to observe will be introduced, including phona-tion at the larynx and articulation in the vocal tract. This description will help to explain terms used for phonetic transcription (Chapter 3). Articulation in a nutshell Most speech sounds of the world’s languages, and all English ones, can be classi-fied as voiced or voiceless , depending on whether the vocal folds in the larynx vibrate or not. Sounds with a full or partial obstruction in the vocal tract, made by the tongue and lips, are called consonants . These are categorized in a two‐ dimensional grid by the manner of articulation , that is, the extent of the obstruc-tion, and by the place of articulation , where the obstruction is made.
eBook - PDFVoice Quality
The Laryngeal Articulator Model
- John H. Esling, Scott R. Moisik, Allison Benner, Lise Crevier-Buchman(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
1 Voice and Voice Quality This chapter presents voice quality as a long-term component of accent. We describe in detail the Laryngeal Articulator Model (LAM), defining key terminology and providing a unified account of laryngeal anatomical structure and physiological function. We present observations of lower-vocal-tract phonetic phenomena that have often been portrayed in inconsistent, confusing, and incorrect ways in the literature on speech physiology and in describing the sounds of the world’s lan- guages. Prior to the methodology described in this text, the structure and functions of the laryngeal articulator, and hence of voice quality, were poorly understood, partly because of the difficulty in visualizing the articulator producing its full range of sounds as they occur in the world’s languages. Categories are presented in order from the lower to the upper vocal tract, paying specific attention to laryngeal categories. 1.1 Voice Quality Defined Voice quality, in its broadest theoretical sense as a phonetic descriptor of accent, refers to the long-term characteristics of a person’s voice – the more or less permanent, habitually recurring, proportionately frequent characteristics of a person’s speech patterns (Abercrombie 1967, Laver 1980). A parallel term denoting how we recognize a person’s voice is ‘long-term quality’ (Nolan 1983). As a property of accent, voice quality refers to all of the habitual, long- term background, or holistic characteristics perceived as the most constant or persistent over time in a person’s speech. Perceptually, it is the longest-term phonetic strand of the aural medium for language. The other two strands, the voice dynamics (prosodic) strand and the segmental strand, are progressively shorter term.
eBook - PDFVoice in Social Interaction
An Interdisciplinary Approach
- Jeff Pittam(Author)
- 1994(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
It is to this area that the next chapter turns. Glossary of Key Terms The following are the technical terms used in this chapter that will be found in a number of places in later chapters. They are included here with their definitions to provide an easily accessible glossary. Articulatory setting. The tendency for the vocal apparatus to take up particular long-term muscular adjustments underlying the move- ment involved in producing a sequence of speech segments. Dynamicfeatures. These refer to the features of voice related to the perceptual dimensions of pitch, loudness, and time. Sometimes re- ferred to as prosodic features. Fundamental frequency. The lowest frequency component of the voice. Essentially, the characteristic frequency of vibration of the vocal folds that an individual speaker adopts, usually expressed in Hertz-the number of complete cycles of vibration per second. Glottis. The space between the vocal folds in the larynx. Larynx. The complete framework of bones, muscles, and cartilage structures situated in the throat at the top of the windpipe or trachea and below the pharyngeal cavity. For voice, the key parts of the larynx are the two vocal folds that produce sound by vibrating. Phonation. The production of sound in the larynx. Tones of voice. The domain of vocal activity used by Laver to describe the longer term but culturally determined uses of voice. 41 The Articulatory Account of Voice Vocal fension. The degrees of muscular tension present in the vocal tract, larynx, and subglottal area. Vocal tract. Comprises the cavities above the larynx-the major ones being the pharyngeal cavity situated immediately above the larynx at the back of the throat; the nasal cavity or rather the set of cavities and sinuses in the nose; and the oral cavity or mouth. Voice qualify. As used by Laver, this refers to the very long-term, habitual voice settings that characterize individuals.
eBook - PDFThe Sounds of Language
An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
- Elizabeth C. Zsiga(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
When we define the position to which the articulator moves (the combina- tion of active articulator and passive articulator), we are defining the place of articulation. When we define the type of constriction that is made (complete stoppage of air vs. narrow channel, for instance) we are defining the manner of articulation. In addition to the place and manner of articulation of a vocal tract constriction, the definition of a speech sound will also include the states of the velum and larynx, as well as the method of getting the air to move. Every speech sound, then, is defined by a particular combination of the following components: • airstream mechanism • state of the larynx • state of the velar port • combination of active and passive articulator (= place of articulation) • manner of articulation This chapter discusses each of these in turn. Before we can begin to talk about specific sounds, however, we need to deal with an important problem: how can sounds be written down? 2.2 phonetic transcription As students of speech, we need to consider how we can most simply and effectively symbolize the sounds that are the object of our study. A system of symbols for sounds is a phonetic alphabet. Writing down sounds using a phonetic alphabet is called phonetic transcription. Since this is a textbook, I need to be able to communicate to you which speech sound I am describing, without having the opportunity to actually pronounce it for you. So far, I have been able to get away with using example sounds for which the sound–spelling correspond- ence is reasonably unambiguous: we all know what sound the letter “m” makes, or “b.” Or I BASICS OF ARTICULATION 17 can cite English words, and say “the sound at the beginning of the word ‘mall,’” and you can say it to yourself and know what I mean. But this won’t get us very far. 2.1 The relationship between language and writing would be a course in itself.
eBook - PDFFrom Memory to Speech and Back
Papers on Phonetics and Phonology 1954 - 2002
- Morris Halle(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
11 The timing of actions of different articulators is coordinated so that the appropriate set of acoustic properties appear together in time. This complex coordination is one of the most striking things that one sees on x-ray motion pictures of speech. Young children acquire this coordina-tion much too rapidly, with too little trial and error to allow one to en-tertain realistically the hypothesis that learning is involved in speaking in the same sense in which learning is involved in such other activities of young children as using spoons, forks and other eating utensils, or tying their shoes, or catching and throwing balls. Unlike these activities, but like bipedal gait, which also involves complex coordination of actions of several anatomical structures, the ability to produce speech must there-fore be assumed to be largely innate; it is a genetically prewired function of the speech module, and therefore need not be painstakingly learned by speakers when they acquire their mother tongue. Knowledge of Language and the Sounds of Speech 191 3. Concluding Remarks We have tried to illustrate here the role that knowledge of language plays in phonetic phenomena of all kinds. We argued that such a fun-damental concept of phonetics as the speech sound is best viewed as a unit in terms of which words are encoded in speakers' memories. We presented evidence showing that in speakers' memories the features of a given sound are not just random collections, but are organized into a specific hierarchy of the kind illustrated in (5). This hierarchy distin-guishes between features that are articulator-bound in that they are exe-cuted by a single dedicated articulator, and features that are articulator-free and hence not so restricted; and we found that features executed by a given articulator are grouped together in the feature hierarchy.
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