The organs of speech and their work

STATE UNIVERSITY

NAMED AFTER M. KOZYBAYEV

ILLUSTRATIVE AND HAND OUT MATERIALS

PRACTICAL COURSE OF PHONETICS

For specialty 5В011900 FOREIGN LANGUAGE: TWO FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Number of credits per course 3

Petropavlovsk

2015 yr.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF REPUBLIK OF KAZAKHSTAN

North Kazakhstan State University

Named after M. Kozybayev

For specialty 5В011900 FOREIGN LANGUAGE: TWO FOREIGN LANGUAGES

MYACHIN K.A.

ILLUSTRATIVE AND HAND OUT MATERIALS

PRACTICAL COURSE OF PHONETICS

Petropavlovsk

2015 yr.

Reviewer

Kakimova M.E., PhD, assistant professor of “Germanic philology” department

Developers:

1. Myachin K.A., teacher of “Germanic philology” department, master

Illustrative and hand out materials in the discipline “Practical course of phonetics” include different materials for self-study, with indications of the tasks, number of hours and teacher’s requirements.

The quality management system of NKSU named after M. Kozybaev is
certified under ISO 9001: 2008

Practical course of English Phonetics

Introduction

The practical course in English phonetics is meant for the students of English faculties who are to become teachers of English. The purpose of the present course is to help the students to help the students to develop their own pronunciation habits and to enable them to teach English pronunciation to others.

The course is based on the type of English pronunciation which is known as ‘Received Pronunciation’ (RP). Received Pronunciation is, in a way, an abstraction, an ideal. It seems to stand above all kinds of English pronunciation within or without Great Britain. But the fact that it has been thoroughly described in linguistic literature, and seems to be easily understood throughout the English-speaking world traditionally makes it a convenient teaching norm for foreigners.

Phonetics may be considered the grammar of pronunciation. To succeed in making English sounds and intonation perfect you will need to know exactly how to make them. Together with the sharpness of your ear and your ability as an imitator the knowledge of how to produce correct sounds and intonation and how to apply them in speech will provide the desirable effect.

The production of speech

The organs of speech and their work

In any language people speak using their organs of speech (Fig.1). The air stream released by the lungs goes through the wind-pipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. This is the usual state of the vocal cords when we breathe out. If the tense vocal cords are brought together, the air stream forcing an opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. When you feel the vibration of the vocal cords and hear voice such sounds are called voiced. Now produce a long Russian sound [c]. No vibration is felt, no voice is heard. This is a voiceless sound, which is made with the vocal cords kept apart.

There is one more state of the vocal cords which results in the glottal stop. When the vocal cords are brought close together and then opened suddenly by the air stream there comes a sort of coughing noise, a kind of the ‘click’ of the vocal cords. This sound is called the glottal stop.

On coming out of the larynx the air stream passes through the pharynx. The pharyngal cavity extends from the top of the larynx to the soft palate, which directs the air stream either to the mouth or nasal cavities, which function as the principal resonators.

The soft palate can be easily seen in hand mirror. Now open your mouth wide and say the vowel [a:]. Looking into the mirror you will see the soft palate, the very end of which is known as the uvula. The soft palate can easily move. When the soft palate is in its lowered position the air goes up into the nasal cavity and then out through the nose. This is the usual position of the soft palate when we breathe through the nose. This is also the position for the nasal sounds [m, n, N]. If you nip your nose you cannot pronounce these sounds. But as soon as you release your nose the air will continue its way and you will hear the sounds again. When the soft palate is raised the uvula forms a full contact with the back wall of the pharynx and the air stream goes through the mouth cavity. This is the most typical position of the soft palate for most of the sounds of many languages.

The soft palate is the furthest part of the palate from the teeth. Most of the palate is hard. This hard and fixed part of the palate is divided into two sections: the hard palate (the highest part of the palate) and the teeth ridge or alveolar ridge (the part immediately behind the upper front teeth). You can touch the teeth ridge with the tongue-tip. The teeth ridge is very important in English as many consonants are formed with the tongue touching or close to it. If you still move the tip of the tongue forward you will feel the teeth.

The lower teeth are not very important for making speech sounds, while tile upper teeth take part in the production of many of them.

The most important organ of speech is the tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four sections, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue; the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. By the central part of the tongue we mean the area where the front and back meet. The edges of the tongue are known as the rims. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions. It can also change its shape so that the sides are curved up forming a groove.

The lips can take up various positions as well. They can be brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, or protruded forward.

All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups:

1) ACTIVE ORGANS OF SPEECH, movable and taking an active part in the sound formation: a) the vocal cords which produce voice; (b) the tongue which is the most flexible movable organ; (c) the lips affecting very considerably the shape of the mouth cavity; (d) the soft palate with the uvula, directing the stream of air either to the mouth or to the nasal cavity; (e) the back wall of the pharynx contracted for some sounds; (f) the lower jaw which movement controls the gap between the teeth and also the disposition of the lips; (g) the lungs providing air for sounds;

2) PASSIVE ORGANS OF SPEECH: (a) the teeth, (b) the teeth ridge, (c) the hard palate and (d) the walls of the resonators.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 4340