Page 55 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 4: Phonetics: Speech Mechanisms-Places and Manners of Articulation

4.4.2 The Active and the Passive Articulators Notes
In the production of speech sounds we make use of two kinds of articulators, the active articulators
and the passive articulators. The active articulators are the lower lip and the tongue; these are
articulators that make contacts with the passive articulators. The passive articulators are the upper
lip, the upper teeth, the roof of the mouth (divisible for the sake of convenience into the teeth-
ridge, the hard-palate and the soft palate), and the back wall of the throat or pharynx. The passive
articulators are called passive because they do not move to touch other articulators. On the other
hand, the active articulators are called active because they remain active and come in contact with
the passive articulators in the production of speech-sounds.
Self-Assessment

1. Fill in the blanks:
(i) Among the seventeenth century phoneticians, the most important name is that of .......... .
(ii) Alexander J. Ellis developed other types of alphabet notably glossic and ............... .
(iii) The study of phonetics can be divided into acoustic, auditory and ............... .
(iv) The larynx is the little box that is popularly called the ............... .

4.5 Summary

• Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech,
or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the
physical properties of speech sounds or signs (phones): their physiological production, acoustic
properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. Phonology, on the other hand,
is concerned with the abstract, grammatical characterization of systems of sounds or signs.
• Phonetics is the scientific study of the production, transmission and reception of speech
sounds. It studies the medium of spoken language. Touching upon physiology and physics,
phonetics is now a pure science that studies speech processes, including the anatomy,
neurology and pathology of speech, as well as the articulation, description, classification,
production and perception of speech sounds. It looks at speech from three distinct but
interdependent viewpoints: it studies the speech organs, which produce sounds of language;
it studies waves, the physical form in which sounds are transmitted through the air from one
person to another; and it studies the way in which human beings perceive sounds through
the medium of the ear.
• The ancient Hindu Rishis who composed the Vedas, must have been in the know of phonetics.
The Vedas were to be chanted and pronounced very accurately. To mispronounce a Vedic
mantra or richa was regarded as a sin of the first order. Even the classification and arrangement
of sounds and their formation in varnas in Sanskrit give an evidence of a sound phonetic
base of this language. In the works of Panini (400 B.C.?), Patanjali (2nd Century A.D.), etc.,
we can have some concrete and outstanding evidence of the ancient phonetics of India. At
about the same time the Greeks and the Romans had also made language and speech the
subject of serious study.
• The transmission in sound of the simplest concept in the mind is the result of a complicated
chain of events. Any speech operation depends on a chain of speech acts. An effective act of
speech is an exceedingly complex operation involving a number of operations. The first
stage is psychological, the second is physiological and the third is physical. First of all a
concept is formulated in the speaker’s brain, and human nervous system transmits this
linguistic message to the so-called organs of speech, articulatory or physiological. The organs
of speech are thus activated and their movements create disturbances in the air; and these
sound waves are received by the listener’s ears. And at the listener’s end, first of all the ears
receive the linguistic codification; his nervous system passes this linguistic message to the
brain, where the linguistic interpretation of the message takes place.

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