# How Speech Is Produced

Languages I · English Phonetics and Phonology · https://tryals.app/learn/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced

## Three Systems in Series

Speech production runs through three stages. Almost every phonetic category describes one of them.

### 1. The airstream

Nearly all speech uses a **pulmonic egressive** airstream. This is air pushed out of the lungs. Other airstreams exist:

- **ejectives**: use air compressed by the larynx
- **implosives**: draw air inward
- **clicks**: use suction between two closures in the mouth

### 2. Phonation: the larynx

Air passes through the **vocal folds**:

- Held close together, they vibrate to make **voiced** sounds.
- Held apart, air passes freely to make **voiceless** sounds.

The vibration rate is the **fundamental frequency** ($F_0$). A listener hears this as pitch:

| Speaker | Typical speaking $F_0$ |
|---|---|
| Adult male | around 120 Hz |
| Adult female | around 210 Hz |
| Child | around 300 Hz |

Larger folds vibrate more slowly. This explains why pitch drops during male adolescence.

### 3. Articulation: the vocal tract

Above the larynx, air passes through a tube about **17 cm** long in an adult male. Articulators change its shape:

- **active** articulators move (such as the tongue and lower lip).
- **passive** articulators stay still (such as the teeth and hard palate).

Two further controls shape speech:

- The **velum** lowers to open the nasal cavity. This makes a sound **nasal** rather than oral, separating /b/ from /m/.
- The **lips** can round. This lengthens the vocal tract and lowers resonant frequencies.

Speakers produce **ten to fifteen** speech sounds per second. Articulators overlap constantly during speech.

> **Common pitfall:** treating voicing as an all-or-nothing property of a sound. It is a state of the larynx over time. Initial English "voiced" stops often lack vocal fold vibration during closure.

## Practice questions

9 of this lesson's 13 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. Why does lowering the velum during a bilabial closure change /b/ into /m/?

A. It shifts the active place of articulation away from bilabial contact and into the nasal cavity
B. It prevents the vocal folds from vibrating, turning a voiced oral plosive into a nasalised sound
C. It prematurely releases the oral closure at the lips to allow compressed air to rush out freely
D. It opens the nasal cavity, so the airflow escapes through the nose while the lips stay closed

**Answer:** D. It opens the nasal cavity, so the airflow escapes through the nose while the lips stay closed

**Why:** Because the nasal cavity opens and the air leaves through the nose. The lips are closed for both sounds and both are voiced, the velum is the entire difference. Note the first option confuses a place with a manner: nasal is a manner, and /m/ is still bilabial.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/why-does-lowering-the-velum-during-a-bilabial-closure-change-b-into

### 2. Pitch depends on the rate of vocal fold vibration, whereas resonance depends on the shape of the vocal tract. Why does lip rounding lower vowel resonances without altering pitch?

A. It shifts the primary airstream away from the lungs
B. It restricts airflow and slows down vocal vibration
C. It pulls the larynx lower, slowing down fold cycles
D. It lengthens the acoustic tube above the larynx

**Answer:** D. It lengthens the acoustic tube above the larynx

**Why:** Rounding extends the oral tube without altering vocal fold tension or mass at the glottis. Conflating filter changes with phonation mechanics ignores that the three production systems operate in series.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/pitch-depends-on-the-rate-of-vocal-fold-vibration-whereas-resonance

### 3. Voicing can switch on and off within a single consonant.

**Answer:** True

**Why:** **True**, and it undermines the tidy label. English initial "voiced" stops frequently have little or no vibration during the closure; what separates them from voiceless ones is when voicing starts relative to release. Voicing is a state of the larynx through time, not a fixed property stamped on a segment.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/voicing-can-switch-on-and-off-within-a-single-consonant

### 4. Sort each articulator by whether it is ACTIVE or PASSIVE.

**Answer:**

- Active: Tongue tip, Lower lip, Tongue body
- Passive: Alveolar ridge, Hard palate, Upper teeth

**Why:** A place of articulation is a **pairing** of one from each column, the lower lip against the upper teeth is labiodental, the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge is alveolar. Naming only the passive member, as the standard labels do, works because the active member is nearly always predictable from it.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/sort-each-articulator-by-whether-it-is-active-or-passive

### 5. Approximately how long is the vocal tract of an adult male, in centimetres?

**Answer:** 17 (within ±2)

**Why:** **About 17 cm**, from the larynx to the lips. The length sets the resonant frequencies of the tube, which is why children and adults producing the same vowel have quite different formant values and why listeners normalise for speaker size automatically.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/approximately-how-long-is-the-vocal-tract-of-an-adult-male-in

### 6. Complete the account of speech production.

**Answer:** Nearly all speech uses a **pulmonic** egressive airstream. Vibration of the vocal folds produces **voiced** sounds, and the rate of that vibration is the **fundamental** frequency. Lowering the **velum** opens the nasal cavity.

**Why:** The third blank is the one to guard: **fundamental frequency** is the rate the folds vibrate, heard as pitch, while **formants** are resonances of the tube above, heard as vowel quality. They vary independently, you can sing the same vowel at any pitch.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/complete-the-account-of-speech-production

### 7. Which follow from the fact that speakers produce ten to fifteen sounds per second?

A. Much allophonic variation is a consequence of timing
B. Articulators must overlap rather than move one at a time
C. Each sound is produced in full before the next begins
D. Adjacent sounds influence one another's articulation

**Answer:** A. Much allophonic variation is a consequence of timing; B. Articulators must overlap rather than move one at a time; D. Adjacent sounds influence one another's articulation

**Why:** The fourth is what the speed rules out. Gestures overlap heavily, which is why a vowel before a nasal is itself nasalised and why /k/ is articulated further forward in *key* than in *car*, the tongue is already preparing the following vowel.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/which-follow-from-the-fact-that-speakers-produce-ten-to-fifteen

### 8. Match each structure to the contrast it controls.

**Answer:**

- Vocal folds → Voiced against voiceless
- Velum → Oral against nasal
- Lips → Rounded against unrounded
- Tongue body → Front against back vowel quality

**Why:** Four structures, four independent dimensions, which is why a sound can be described by stating the setting of each rather than by memorising a list. Any combination is in principle possible, and languages differ in which combinations they use.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/match-each-structure-to-the-contrast-it-controls

### 9. Clicks occur only as paralinguistic noises and never as ordinary consonants in a language.

**Answer:** False

**Why:** **False.** Several southern African languages use series of clicks as ordinary consonants in everyday words. English uses one paralinguistically to express disapproval, which is a fact about English rather than about clicks.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/how-speech-is-produced/clicks-occur-only-as-paralinguistic-noises-and-never-as-ordinary