Task 1.

a) Describe the articulators above the larynx and their role in the production of speech sounds.

Articulators are organs involved in the process of producing speech sounds . The articulators
are classified into two major categories. Those are the active and the passive articulators. Active
articulator is the articulators like lower lip, tongue and jaw that can move freely and does all or most
of the moving during a speech gesture. Passive articulator is the articulators like the upper lip,
upper teeth, the back wall of a pharynx and various parts of the upper surface of the oral cavity. that
make no or little movement during a speech gesture.

Figure 1 below shows the articulators above the larynx involved in producing speech sounds.

Hard palate

Alveolar ridge
Soft palate/velum

Tongue
Lips

Pharynx
Teeth
Epiglottis
Vocal cords

Larynx

Figure 1

Larynx is a structure at the top of the trachea. It is also known as the voice box. It contains
two small elastic tissues known as vocal cords . Sound is produced when the opening of the vocal
cords known as epiglottis were expanded and narrowed when we breathe in and out.
The palate is divided into two parts. The hard and the soft palate. Because it is the roof of
the mouth, so it separates the oral and the nasal cavity. The hard palate which is a concave part of
the roof of the mouth forms the central part of the roof and the soft palate is extended from the hard
palate. The soft palate is movable. At the end of the soft palate is the uvula. When the uvula is
lowered, the nasal sounds such as ( /m, n, / ) are produced. When it is raised, the air passes out
through the oral cavity and the oral sounds ( /p,t,k,s/ ) are produced.
Tongue is an active articulator and plays an important role in speech production. It has four
parts, the tip, blade,front and back. It can move to different places and be in different shapes. Most
of the vowel sounds are produced with the help from the tongue and they differ from each other
because of the position of the tongue. The tip of the tongue produced ( /t,d,z/ ). The blade
produced ( /t, d, / ). The front produced ( /j/ ) and the back produced ( /k,g/ ) sounds.
The protrusion at the front of the mouth is called lips. The bilabial sounds such as(/p,b,m/)
are produced when the airflow is constricted between the upper and lower lips. When the lips
brought into contact with the teeth, sounds they produced are called labiodental sounds and when
rounded they produced vowel sounds.
Teeth are the passive articulators and they are located on both the upper and lower jaw.
When the upper and lower teeth are brought together, the can obstruct the airflow and resulting in
hissing sound. Sounds produced involving the teeth are dental sounds.
The surface of the alveolar ridge is covered with little ridges and located between the upper
teeth and the hard palate. Alveolar sounds such as ( / s, t, d , z / ) are produced when the tip of the
tongue touches the alveolar ridge.

Task 2.
Transcription.

Articulators are organs involved in the process of producing speech sounds . The
articulators are classified into two major categories. Those are the active and the passive
articulators. Active articulator is the articulators like lower lip, tongue and jaw that can move freely
and does all or most of the moving during a speech gesture.

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References :
Abdullah, P. D. (2010). HBENT1203 English Phonetics and Phonology. Seri Kembangan: OUM.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed.).(2003). Pearson Longman.
Roach, P. (1991). English Phonetics and phonology. A practical course. (Second edition).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_of_articulation

http://tanvirdhaka.blogspot.com/2010/12/organs-of-speech.html