Speech organ

Organ (anatomy)

In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function. Usually there is a main tissue and sporadic tissues . The main tissue is the one that is unique for the specific organ. For example, main tissue in the heart is the myocardium, while sporadic are...

s produce the many sounds needed for language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

. Organs used include the lip

Lip

Lips are a visible body part at the mouth of humans and many animals. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech...

s, teeth, tongue

Tongue

The tongue is a muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication. It is the primary organ of taste , as much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, and is richly...

, alveolar ridge

Alveolar ridge

An alveolar ridge is one of the two jaw ridges either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate or on the bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth. The alveolar ridges contain the sockets of the teeth....

, hard palate

Hard palate

The hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.It is formed by the palatine process of the maxilla and horizontal plate of palatine bone....

, velum (soft palate

Soft palate

The soft palate is the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone....

), uvula and glottis

Glottis

The glottis is defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds .-Function:...

.

Speech organs—or articulators—are of two types: passive articulators and active articulators. Passive articulators remain static during the articulation of sound. Upper lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, and pharynx wall are passive articulators. Active articulators move relative to these passive articulators to produce various speech sounds, in different manner

Manner of articulation

In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants, even though the movement of the articulars will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the...

s. The most important active articulator is the tongue. The lower lip and glottis are other active articulators.

See also

• articulatory phonetics
  Articulatory phonetics
  The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics. In studying articulation, phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures....
  
  
• vocal loading
  Vocal loading
  Vocal loading is the stress inflicted on the speech organs when speaking for long periods.- Background :Of the working population, about 15% have professions where their voice is their primary tool. That includes professions such as teachers, sales personnel, actors and singers, and TV and radio...
  
  
• places of articulation and manner of articulation
  Manner of articulation
  In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound. Often the concept is only used for the production of consonants, even though the movement of the articulars will also greatly alter the resonant properties of the...
  
  
• human anatomy
  Human anatomy
  Human anatomy is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the human body. Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy. Gross anatomy is the study of anatomical structures that can be seen by the naked eye...