ABSTRACT

Subdiscipline of general phonetics which describes the physiological processes occurring in the vocal tract during speech. From a physical standpoint, speech sounds are resonances, the production of which involves four factors: (1) airstream mechanism, the initiation of an actual or potential flow of air; (2) phonation, the activity of the larynx (other than for initiation or articulation); (3) the position of the velum, yielding nasal or nasalized sounds on the one hand and oral sounds on the other; and (4) the place of articulation and manner of articulation. (1) and (4) are factors in all speech sounds, (2) and (3) only in pulmonic sounds.