Organs of Speech

Phonetics

Organs of Speech

Physiology of Pronunciation

The organs of the human body, which produce speech sounds, are together called organs of speech. The organs of speech can be studied under three systems – articulatory, phonatory and respiratory systems.Articulatory system comprises of pharynx and oral and nasal cavities. The chief articulators in this system are lips, teeth (upper and lower), hard palate, soft palate/velum, uvula and tongue. Tongue has three parts - tip, blade/front and back. Phonatory system consists of trachea and larynx. Vocal cords and glottis are situated in the larynx. Respiratory system comprises of lungs and bronchial tubes.

The vocal cords: The vocal cords are two elastic folds situated in the Adam’s apple. The opening between the vocal cords is called the glottis. The air-stream travels upwards from the lungs through the vocal cords. When the vocal cords vibrate, voiced sounds are produced. Sounds produced without the vibration of the vocal cords are known as voiceless sound.

The lips: Lips are important part of the articulatory system.

The tongue: Among the organs of speech, the tongue is the chief articulator. The tongue has three parts: the tip, the blade and the back. Any one of these three may be used in the production of a sound.

The teeth-ridge: The teeth-ridge is situated behind the upper row of teeth. Sounds produced with the tongue touching the teeth-ridge are known as alveolar sounds.

The palate: The palate forms the roof of the mouth. The palate has two parts – the hard palate and the soft palate, which is also called the velum. If you run the tongue along the surface of the roof, you will find the first half of the palate hard and the second half soft.

International phonetic alphabet symbols

English Speech Sounds

Vowels 

/ɪ/ pin, English, business

/e/ bed, head, bury, exit 

/æ/ cat, bag, apple, black 

/ə/ the, a, woman, banana 

/ʊ/ look, put, could, cushion 

/ɒ/ clock, what, because 

/ʌ/ cut, come, mother

/ɜː/ girl, burn, word, heard 

/ɑː/ car, art, heart, half 

/ɔː/ or, board, door, small 

/ɪː/ sea, bee, people, receive

/uː/ too, blue, fruit, fool

Diphthongs 

 /eɪ/ take, pay, wait, ballet 

/ɑɪ/ five, sigh, height, buy 

/ɔɪ/ noise, boy, lawyer 

/əʊ/ no, road, sew, broken 

/ɑʊ/ round, renown, doubt 

/ɪə/ here, deer, dear, fierce 

/eə/ care, air, mayor, prayer 

/ʊə/ poor, insure, tour, moor

Consonants

 /p/ play, stop, speak, power 

/b/ bad, baby, big, object 

/t/ ten, later, little, pot 

/d/ day, advice, bed 

/k/ character, quick, taxi

/g/ got, exam, ignore, finger 

/f/ food, laugh, telephone 

/v/ vain, over, Stephen 

/θ/ thin, earth, method, both 

/ð/ they, father, breathe, with 

/s/ small, since, scene, psalm 

/z/ zoo, goes, xenophobe 

/ʃ/ shell, nation, machine  

/ʒ/ genre, measure, vision 

/h/ hot, hair, whole, whose

/m/ moon, lamp, lamb 

/n/ can, snow, pneumonia 

/ŋ/ string, singer, tongue

/tʃ/ chair, match, future 

/dʒ/ just, general, age, soldier

/l/ look, small, bottle, isle 

/r/ real, train, wrong, write 

/j/ yes, Europe, university 

/w/ window, twin, quick, why