A speech organ is active if it moves as sound is produced, whereas it is passive if there is no movement. Together with the lips, tongue, and teeth, these organs also include the alveolar ridge, uvula, palate, and glottis. Of these speech articulators, only the lower lip, tongue, and glottis are active. The organs of speech fall into three groupings: Most human sounds are produced by an egressive pulmonic airstream. During speech, the lungs take in air rapidly and let it go slowly. Marc antoine charpentier te deum. Found at the very top of the trachea Contains the two vocal folds, one on the left one on the right.

There are many different forms of communication, although people usually communicate with one another through the use of speech. Speech organs are body structures that work together so that people can communicate through spoken language. Also called speech articulators, these organs are necessary in the production of voice, or the sound produced only by humans to tell one another how they think or feel. They may be categorized based on whether they are active or passive.

Unlike most animals that have the ability to communicate through nonverbal means, most humans produce distinct words to communicate with one another. Speech is delivered with much speed; typically, a person who wants to speak does not need to think too much about what to say. When a person speaks, his or her thoughts are immediately converted into a spoken form as soon as the speech organs receive a signal or instruction from the brain. Therefore, speech occurs when a person’s brain and speech organs work together, although the organs of the respiratory system also play an important role in this process, as the vocal cords need air to vibrate and produce sound.

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. Active articulators move relative to passive articulators, which remain still, to produce various speech sounds, in particular manners of articulation.^[1] The upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, and pharynx wall are passive articulators. The most important active articulator is the tongue as it is involved in the production of the majority of sounds. The lower lip is another active articulator. The glottis is not an active articulator because it is only a space between vocal folds.

Active Articulators[edit]

The organs which actively move toward the passive articulators during sound production. There are

• lip
• teeth
• tongue
• uvula
• vocal folds or vocal cords of the larynx

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Rachael-Anne Knight (2012), Phonetics – A course book, Cambridge University Press, p.27