Speech organs

“ The palate, lower palate, tongue, teeth, and lips may be looked upon as a combined resonance chamber, whose constantly varying shape, chiefly due to the extreme mobility of the tongue, is the main factor in giving the outgoing breath its precise quality [13] of sound.
The lungs and bronchial tubes are organs of speech only in so far as they supply and conduct the current of outgoing air without which audible articulation is impossible. They are not responsible for any specific sound or acoustic feature of sounds except, possibly, accent or stress. ”

“ Another reason for our lack of phonetic imagination is the fact that, while our ear is delicately responsive to the sounds of speech, the muscles of our speech organs have early in life become exclusively accustomed to the particular adjustments and systems of adjustment that are required to produce the traditional sounds of the language. ”

“ Oral speech is by no means the only way in which such intercommunication is secured, and even if no organs had existed by which sound could be produced, some other means would have been adopted. But man possessed sound-producing organs in common with nearly all animals. ”

“ The cords, which are attached to the cartilages, are to the human speech organs what the two vibrating reeds are to a clarinet or the strings to a violin. They are capable of at least three distinct types of movement, each of which is of the greatest importance for speech. ”

“ The lungs developed, roughly speaking, in connection with the necessary biological function known as breathing; the nose, as an organ of smell; the teeth, as organs useful in breaking up food before it was ready for digestion. If, then, these and other organs are being constantly utilized in speech, it is only because any organ, once existent and in so far as it is subject to voluntary control, can be utilized by man for secondary purposes. ”

“ Such human or animal communication, if “communication” it may be called, as is brought about by involuntary, instinctive cries is not, in our sense, language at all.
I have just referred to the “organs of speech,” and it would seem at first blush that this is tantamount to an admission that speech itself is an instinctive, biologically predetermined activity. We must not be misled by the mere term. There are, properly speaking, no organs of speech; there are only organs that are incidentally useful in the production of speech sounds. ”

“ This would happen wherever organs on both sides of the body could be governed by the left hemisphere; and just such a case seems offered by the vocal organs, in that highly delicate and special motor service which we call speech. Either hemisphere can innervate them bilaterally, just as either seems able to innervate bilaterally the muscles of the trunk, ribs, and diaphragm. Of the special movements of speech, however, it would appear (from the facts of aphasia) that the left hemisphere in most persons habitually takes exclusive charge. With that hemisphere thrown out of gear, speech is undone ”

“ Remember that breath is the foundation of voice, and that correct breathing is necessary to the production of correct speech. Breathe by means of the abdominal muscles and diaphragm, thus using the lungs from bottom to top and retaining control over the voice; at the same time, freeing the larynx from all pressure and permitting the vocal tone to come smoothly into the mouth, where it is articulated into speech.
All animals, brute and human, male and female, possess organs of respiration that are similar in their nature and that work in precisely the same manner. ”

“ The vocal organs, on the other hand, through which thought becomes realized in speech, are subject to all the conditions of the material world. The utterance of each articulate sound and its relations to another are conditioned and defined by the physical constitution of man, by the circumstances in which he finds himself, and by measurable laws of sound. The outward form of language, the flesh-garment, as it were, in which thought clothes itself, falls entirely into the domain of physiology and acoustics. ”

“ The organ of speech is perhaps the most delicate and perfect motor apparatus in the whole body. It has been calculated that upwards of 900 movements per minute can be made by the movable organs of speech during reading, speaking, and singing. It is said that no less than a hundred different muscles are called into action in talking. Each part of this delicate apparatus is so admirably adjusted to every other that all parts of this most complex machinery act in perfect harmony. ”

“ Organs of Speech. Although the effects produced by the human voice are myriad in their complexity, the apparatus involved in making the sounds which constitute speech is extremely simple. In construction it has been usually compared to an organ pipe, a comparison justifiable for imparting a non-technical understanding of its operation. ”

“ The study of the functions of the cranial nerves convinces me that the state of mind which conceives a tone acts upon the organs of speech through the cranial nerves in a way to give vocal expression. In perfect expression the conception and the expression are absolutely synchronous. ”

“ The organs of speech are at rest, and all that can be done is to propel the breath with greater or less violence. We may breathe hard through the mouth, we may even make noises like that of snorting through the nose, but as yet there is nothing which can constitute a starting-point for articulate speech. ”

“ Physiologically, speech is an overlaid function, or, to be more precise, a group of overlaid functions. It gets what service it can out of organs and functions, nervous and muscular, that have come into being and are maintained for very different ends than its own.
It is true that physiological psychologists speak of the localization of speech in the brain. This can only mean that the sounds of speech are localized in the auditory tract of the brain, or in some circumscribed portion of it, precisely as other classes of sounds are localized ”

“ We may observe also (as we see in the case of the poor stammerer) that speech has the co-operation of the whole body and may be often assisted or half expressed by gesticulation. A sound or word is not the work of the vocal organs only; nearly the whole of the upper part of the human frame, including head, chest, lungs, have a share in creating it ”

“ This means that one must use the muscles and organs of breath, sound, and speech in such manner as to produce the voice with ease and utter the words distinctly and with the desired force. Secondly, one should so master inflection, emphasis, pitch, and color as to be able to present the thought precisely as he conceives it. The whole vocal mechanism, in both its physical and mental parts, must be under perfect control, and this control can only be gained by patient practice. ”

“ Exterior speech is that of articulate sound which impinges upon the external membrane of the ear, and it is conveyed from thence, by means of the small organs, membranes, and fibres, which are within the ear, to the brain. ”

“ As already explained, the quality of tone is entirely influenced by the number of over-tones, these being due to other parts of the throat accessory to the vocal cords in voice production.
Fig. 6. Diagram of Vocal apparatus During Pronunciation of Vowel 'ah' (Seiler) Before explaining this point, we must first consider what other organs are essential in the production of the voice. The fundamental tones are made in the larynx as already explained, but these alone do not produce articulate speech; in fact, such tones are not limited to the human race. ”

“ We have seen that speech consists essentially in a modification of the vocal sounds by the accessory organs, or by parts above the larynx, the latter being the essential vocal instrument.
Many animals have the power of making articulated sounds; a few have risen, like man, to the dignity of sentences, but these are only by imitation of the human voice. ”

“ They learn to vary the pitch of their voices partly by feeling with the hand the vibrations of the throat and chest,—quick and in the throat for high tones, slow and in the chest for low ones—partly by help of Bell’s written signs, which represent the position peculiar to each sound of the various organs of speech—throat, tongue, lips, back of the mouth, &c. ”

“ A single world is dead, so also are many.
2885. Words, which are connected together according to organic laws, form an organic system, are at once alive, and have a meaning.
2886. Speech originates gradually like the organs, like Man. Speech grows like a plant; at first it is only root, next it puts forth a stem, then leaves, and finally blossoms, when it is the perfect expression of the animal body.
2887. The organ of speech is composed of the three terrestrial organs of sense, the air-, water-, and earth-sense. ”

“ The idea of these hand signs, by the way, corresponds to that of Graham Bell’s Visible Speech, in which a written symbol is used to indicate the position of the vocal organs when uttering each sound; it is a kind of phonetic writing which is to a slight extent illustrative at the same time. We find natural signs of the utmost value when teaching articulation, to describe the position of the vocal organs. ”

“ In the larynx are the two true vocal cords, the vibration of which produces voice; and this voice, passing into the mouth, is moulded into speech by the organs of articulation.
Control of the breath. There are muscles that act on the lungs and regulate the entrance of air and the exit of breath. The muscles are: pectoral, dorsal, costal, intercostal, abdominal, and the diaphragm. The pectoral [p. 124] muscles hold up the chest and thus allow the air to enter the upper lobes of the lungs. ”

“ The integers of language are sentences, and their organs are the parts of speech. Linguistic organization, then, consists in the differentiation of the parts of speech and the integration of the sentence. ”

“ As already stated, the modifications of the vowel sounds for articulate speech are made in the cavities of the mouth, the upper part of the throat and by the nostrils, and are further modified by the position of the teeth, lips and palate. In perfect singing or speaking, we must have all these parts in a normal condition, and where there is no obstruction, defect, congestion or inflammation, there is no interference with the free motion or vibration of the parts concerned in voice production. ”

“ The subject of phonetic change in language is too vast, and runs out into a too infinite detail, to be treated here with any fulness: we can only attempt to direct our attention to its most important features and guiding principles.
Each one of the sounds composing our spoken alphabet is produced by an effort in which the lungs, the throat, and the organs of the mouth bear a part. The lungs furnish the rough material, an expulsion of air, in greater or less force; the vocal cords in the larynx, by their approximation. ”

“ The laryngoscope should not, in fact, leave the hands of the physician. Invaluable for the detection of diseases of the throat which impair the voice and which have to be cured either by treatment or operation before the voice can be restored to its original potency or charm, its value in studying the physiology of voice-production and the functions of the vocal organs is doubtful. ”

“ Nature has endowed the voice with a sufficient guide and monitor—the sense of hearing. There is a direct connection between the cerebral centres of hearing and the centres governing the muscles of the vocal organs. The volitional impulse to produce a certain sound involves the hearing of the sound in imagination; through the nerve fibres connecting the centres of hearing and of voice, the nerve impulse is sent to the vocal organs which causes them to assume the positions and perform the muscular contractions necessary for the production of the desired tone. ”

“ One question remains—How can a person cultivate a chest voice? How bring the voice directly from the lungs without in the least distressing the throat? This is all important. The young speaker should practise for a short time daily the method of lifting, first, words and then sentences straight from the lungs without making the least possible demand on the throat or vocal chords, stealing each word out of the depths of the lungs, afraid, as it were, of awakening the upper organs. When he has acquired this habit of speaking words and sentences, let him practise a verse or two of declamation. ”

“ In producing voice no more breath should be used than is necessary to produce the desired sound. If too much breath is used, and it escapes through the larynx without being [p. 136] converted into voice, it will drown the voice and breathy tones will be formed. Breath must always be kept back of the voice, it must never be permitted to escape at the sides or around the tone; if it does so escape, the tone cannot be pure, breath will be wasted, the larynx will soon tire, and the speech will be muffled and lack power. ”

“ In the voice we have an organ answering to hearing; we have no such organ answering to sight, and we do not repeat colours as we repeat sounds. This supplies an additional means of cultivating the ear by practising the active and passive organs one with the other. ”

“ A little practice every day will [Pg 330] work swift wonders with the voice. And so, in leaving with you Madame Ricardo's watchwords, I also commend you to Ellen Terry's "infinite pains." When it means, as it does in pursuing this ideal, that we must be on guard every waking instant—for a time; when it means a watch set (for a time) upon every organ involved in expression—lips, teeth, tongue, jaw, mouth, throat, chest, diaphragm, and all the muscles governing these organs ”