The emergence of speech in humans and the formation of sounds is possible thanks to the speech apparatus. The speech apparatus is a set of coordinated organs that help form the voice, regulate it and form it into meaningful expressions. Thus, the human speech apparatus includes all elements directly involved in the creation of sounds - the articulatory apparatus, including the central nervous system, respiratory organs - lungs and bronchi, throat and larynx, oral and nasal cavities.
The structure of the speech apparatus
The structure of the human speech apparatus, that is, its structure, is divided into two sections - the central and peripheral sections. The central link is the human brain with its synapses and nerves. The central speech apparatus also includes the higher parts of the central nervous system. The peripheral department, also known as the executive department, is a whole community of elements of the body that ensure the formation of voice and speech. Further, according to the structure, the peripheral part of the speech apparatus is divided into three subsections:
- The department that regulates respiratory processes. Breathing is an important function of the body. It is implemented by special nerve centers and occurs automatically. Sounds from the body always come out during exhalation, and the air wave formed at this moment helps to perform two tasks at once - articulatory function and voice formation. This section includes the lungs and bronchi, the muscles located between the ribs, and the diaphragm.
- Voice department. The voice has three characteristics. This is its power, timbre and height. The work of the vocal cords causes vibrations in the air, transmitted to the outside world, perceived as voice.
- The articulatory apparatus is the department that directly forms sounds into speech. Consists of active and passive organs. Active organs of articulation are movable, helping to form sounds. The main organs of articulation are the lips and tongue, palate and jaw. Their changes in position lead to the creation of narrowings in different places of the articulation department. The character of the sound produced depends on this position. The mandible helps create stressed vowels. The tongue is the main muscle of the articulatory apparatus. The clarity of pronounced sounds depends on its ability to be flexible and transformative. The lips are also a moving part and contribute to the formation of vowel sounds and speech, they are an important organ in the articulation of words, which is helped by the specific placement of the tongue.
Passive organs included in the articulatory apparatus are immobile organs. Their main task is to be the foundation, the basis for active organs. Passive organs include teeth and the entire oral cavity, and the hard palate. As well as the pharynx and larynx. Although they are motionless, they still influence, albeit slightly, the speech potential and character of a person’s speech.
Brief information about the anatomy and physiology of the speech apparatus
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Introduction.
Speech technique - breathing, voice, diction. Expressiveness is a feature of speech that captures attention and creates an atmosphere of emotional empathy. The expressiveness of a teacher’s speech is a powerful tool for influencing a child. The teacher’s mastery of various means of expressiveness (intonation, rate of speech, strength, pitch of voice, etc.) contributes not only to the formation of the arbitrary expressiveness of the child’s speech, but also to a more complete awareness of the content of the adult’s speech, and the formation of the ability to express his attitude to the subject of conversation. The teacher needs to know and follow the basic norms of the Russian language when communicating with children: orthoepic norms (rules of literary pronunciation), as well as norms for the formation and modification of words.
When working on the expressiveness of speech, much attention should be paid to the means of speech expressiveness. These are intonation, logical stress, pauses, tempo, strength and pitch of the voice. All means of speech expression are closely interconnected and complement each other. The main means of speech expressiveness is intonation. In everyday life, intonation is born involuntarily, by itself, as the speaker expresses his thoughts and feelings. When reading a work of art, intonation arises after comprehension of the text, understanding of the author’s intentions and intentions, and a conscious attitude towards the characters, their actions and events. Intonation does not express the essence of the phrase; it is the result of the reader’s deep penetration into the text.
Speech technique as a practical discipline includes four main sections: breathing, voice, diction and orthoepy.
The importance of speech technique for artistic reading and storytelling.
Creative activity, and expressive reading and storytelling is one of the types of creative activity in the field of art, accessible and necessary for all children, adolescents and young men. Like any creative activity, it can be more or less vibrant. The skills that are necessary for fruitful creative activity must be nurtured and developed in the process of special classes. The importance of expressive reading and storytelling in a person’s life is very important, because expressive reading is artistic reading in a school setting. Artistic reading and storytelling is a performing art, the task of which is to turn a written word into a spoken word, and a spoken word is much better perceived than a read word. Unlike storytelling, expressive reading accurately preserves the text of the work, which is emphasized by the word “reading.” Clear and correct communication of the author’s thoughts is the first task of expressive reading. Logical expressiveness ensures a clear transmission of the facts conveyed by the words of the text and their relationship. It always includes the author’s attitude to the life phenomena he depicts, his assessment of the phenomena, and their emotional understanding. Not only reading, but also speech should be expressive. “To say something expressively means to some extent enhance the impression of your speech, influence the feelings of listeners, force them to pay attention to this or that detail in a conversation or narration.”
Many famous teachers attached more importance to expressive reading as a means of moral and aesthetic education: K.D. Ushinsky, A.S. Makarenko, M.A. Rybnikova, L.A. Gorbushina. issues of expressive reading were covered by methodologists of the past and present T.A. Zadorozhnaya, N.A. Zaitseva and others M.R. Lvov, L.A. Gorbushina, N.N. Svetlovskaya, A.A. Bonadrenko, O.V. Kubasova, E.I. Matveeva note that the development of intonation expressiveness in reading has been underestimated by teachers for some time.
The scientist-teacher M.A. Rybnikova believed that “reading expressively is... the first and main form of concrete, visual teaching of literature...”.
Expressiveness
reading as quality is formed in the process of analyzing the work.
To read the text expressively means, as L.A. rightly writes. Gorbushina, - to find in oral speech a means by which one can truthfully, accurately, in accordance with the writer’s plan, convey the ideas and feelings embedded in the work. Intonation is such a means.” Intonation is
a set of jointly acting elements of spoken speech, the most important of which are stress, tempo and rhythm, pauses, raising and lowering the voice. These elements interact, support each other, and are collectively determined by the content of the work, its ideological and emotional “charge,” as well as the goals set by the reader at a given moment.”
When working on the expressiveness of speech, much attention must be paid to speech technique - breathing, voice, diction and means of speech expressiveness: intonation, logical stress, pause, tempo, strength and pitch of the voice. All means of speech expression are closely interconnected and complement each other.
Breathing is of great importance for oral speech. We must teach children this art, at least on an elementary basis and through personal example. Proper breathing means health. Expressive reading depends on the reader’s ability to see with his own voice and its properties. The voice, like breathing, should be developed to develop a better voice - a natural, medium-strength and high-pitched voice that a good reader has. A few words about diction, clear pronunciation of sounds, words, phrases. Good diction is equally important for both the reader and the listener. Diction makes breathing easier and the vocal cords work.
Signs of expressive reading: 2) the ability to observe pauses and logical stresses that convey the author’s intent; 3) the ability to observe the intonation of a question, statement, and also give the voice the necessary emotional tones; 4) good diction, clear, precise pronunciation of sounds, sufficient volume, tempo.
Reading the text expressively means: 1) revealing the characteristic features of the images, paintings depicted in it; 2) showing the author’s attitude to events, to the actions of the characters; 3) convey the basic emotional tone inherent in the work.
So, work on expressiveness is “...a combination of several areas: - technical - including breathing training, improving the articulatory apparatus; - intonational - involving special work on the components of intonation; — semantic — implementing the entire system of work to comprehend the idea of a work; - training - with the goal of training children in expressive reading of the work after analysis.” The artistic and speech direction of language perception in literary reading lessons in primary school increases the meaning-creating potential of the linguistic personality.
Brief information about the anatomy and physiology of the speech apparatus
The speech apparatus is the totality and interaction of human organs necessary for the production of speech. It consists of two sections: central and peripheral. The central section is the brain with its cortex, subcortical nodes, pathways and nuclei of the corresponding nerves. The peripheral department is the entire set of executive organs of speech, including bones, cartilage, muscles and ligaments, as well as peripheral sensory and motor nerves, with the help of which the work of these organs is controlled.
The peripheral speech apparatus consists of three main sections that act together.
The 1st section is the respiratory organs, since all speech sounds are formed only during exhalation. These are the lungs, bronchi, trachea, diaphragm, intercostal muscles. The lungs rest on the diaphragm, an elastic muscle that, when relaxed, is dome-shaped. When the diaphragm and intercostal muscles contract, the volume of the chest increases and inhalation occurs; when they relax, exhalation occurs;
2nd section - passive speech organs - these are immobile organs that serve as a fulcrum for active organs. These are teeth, alveoli, hard palate, pharynx, nasal cavity, larynx. They have the greatest influence on speech technique;
3rd section - active speech organs - these are mobile organs that perform the main work necessary for the formation of sound. These include the tongue, lips, soft palate, small uvula, epiglottis, vocal cords. The vocal cords are two small bundles of muscles attached to the cartilage of the larynx and located almost horizontally across it. They are elastic, can be relaxed and tense, and can be moved apart to different widths;
The first section of the peripheral speech apparatus serves to supply a stream of air, the second - to form the voice, the third is a resonator, giving the sound strength and color and thus forming the characteristic sounds of our speech, which arise as a result of the activity of individual active parts of the articulatory apparatus. The latter include the lower jaw, tongue, lips and soft palate.
The lower jaw moves down and up; the soft palate rises and falls, thus closing and opening the passage into the nasal cavity; the tongue and lips can take a wide variety of positions. A change in the position of the speech organs entails the formation of gates and constrictions in various parts of the articulatory apparatus, due to which one or another character of the sound is determined.
The tongue is rich in muscles that make it very mobile: it can lengthen and shorten, become narrow and wide, flat and curved.
The soft palate, or velum, ending in a small uvula, lies at the top of the oral cavity and is a continuation of the hard palate, which begins at the upper teeth with alveoli. The velum palatine has the ability to move down and up and thus separate the pharynx from the nasopharynx. When pronouncing all sounds except m and n, the velum palatine is raised. If for some reason the velum is inactive and is not raised, then the sound is nasal (nasal), since when the velum is lowered, sound waves pass primarily through the nasal cavity.
The lower jaw, due to its mobility, is a very important organ of the articulatory apparatus, as it contributes to the full development of stressed vowel sounds (a, o, u, e, i, s).
The painful state of individual parts of the articulation apparatus is reflected in the correct resonance and clarity of pronounced sounds. Therefore, in order to develop the necessary articulation, all organs involved in the formation of speech sounds must work correctly and in concert.
Breath
A sonorous, flexible, beautiful voice is, first of all, correct breathing. On the one hand, breathing is a reflex act and occurs without the intervention of human consciousness, performing its main physiological function of gas exchange in the human body. But, on the other hand, breathing is a controlled process when it is directly related to speech pronunciation. This type of breathing is called speech (phonation, or sound) breathing, and it requires special training.
Since breathing is also associated with voice formation and speech formation, mastering proper breathing is necessary for every person whose work involves a heavy load on the speech apparatus, especially in conditions of monologue speech.
Depending on which muscles are involved in the respiratory process, we can talk about four types of breathing.
Upper breathing, when inhalation and exhalation are accomplished by contracting the muscles that raise and lower the shoulders and upper chest. This is weak shallow breathing, with only the tops of the lungs actively working.
Chest breathing. In this case, the breathing process occurs due to a change in the transverse volume of the chest due to contraction of the intercostal muscles. At the same time, the diaphragm - the main respiratory muscle - is inactive, so the exhalation is not energetic enough.
Diaphragmatic breathing, when the breathing process occurs due to a change in the longitudinal volume of the chest due to contraction of the diaphragm (in this case, a contraction of the intercostal respiratory muscles is observed, but very insignificant).
We usually use all three types of breathing, but different people have a specific type that predominates. Thus, in the process of evolution, women's breathing has developed as predominantly chest breathing, while men breathe mainly using the diaphragm.
Diaphragmatic - costal breathing, when inhalation and exhalation are performed due to changes in the volume of the chest in the longitudinal and transverse directions due to contraction of the diaphragm, intercostal respiratory muscles, as well as the abdominal muscles of the abdomen. This breathing is considered correct and is used as the basis for speech breathing.
For speech, especially monologue, ordinary physiological breathing is not enough. Speech and reading aloud require more air, a constant respiratory supply, its economical use and timely resumption, regulated by the respiratory center of the brain. In the initial stage of mastering speech breathing, will and consciousness are involved, aimed at performing the desired breathing task. Such voluntary speech breathing, achieved only through training, gradually becomes involuntary and organized.
You must breathe through your nose. The habit of breathing through the mouth has a very harmful effect on the human body, leading to diseases of the thyroid gland, tonsils (tonsils), and the entire respiratory system. Nasal breathing protects the throat and lungs from cold air and dust, ventilates the lungs well, the cavity of the middle ear, which communicates with the nasopharynx, has a beneficial effect on the blood vessels of the brain. It is imperative to breathe through your nose in everyday life and when performing breathing exercises. The role of proper nasal breathing and breathing exercises in a person’s life is enormous. Breathing exercises are successfully used as an effective way to treat diseases of the upper respiratory tract (runny nose, laryngitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis), bronchial asthma, and neuroses. Healthy people can use breathing exercises to prevent many diseases.
Speech sounds are formed during exhalation. The flow of exhaled air through the trachea (windpipe) enters from the lungs into the larynx and from there into the oral cavity, passing through the vocal cords located across the larynx and separated by the glottis. The vocal muscles, under the influence of brain impulses, move the vocal cords, which vibrate the air flow passing through them and create sound vibrations. Articulatory muscles contract under the influence of impulses from the brain, and sound vibrations turn into speech sounds.
Since speech sounds are formed during exhalation, its organization is of paramount importance for the establishment of speech breathing and voice, for their development and improvement. Therefore, the ultimate goal of training speech diaphragmatic-costal breathing is to train a long exhalation (and not at all to develop the ability to inhale the maximum amount of air), to train the ability to rationally spend the air supply during speech. To do this, it is necessary to train the muscles involved in the respiratory process and holding the chest in an expanded state not to relax passively immediately after inhalation. Their relaxation should occur gradually, as needed, submitting to our will. To develop this type of breathing, educational and training exercises will be given below to develop and strengthen the diaphragm, abdominal and intercostal muscles.
4. Diction
Clear, precise diction is the first and indispensable condition for good speech. The organs of pronunciation include: lips, tongue, jaws, teeth, hard and soft palate, small tongue, larynx, pharynx, vocal cords. The pronunciation of words and sounds is the result of contraction of the muscles of the corresponding parts of the speech apparatus (articulation). Carelessness in pronunciation makes speech slurred and illegible. This is expressed in “eating” the final consonant or sounds within a word, sounding “through the teeth.” A fixed upper lip and a flaccid lower lip interfere with the clear and precise pronunciation of many whistling and hissing consonants. Speech is often unintelligible due to patter, when words seem to “bump” into each other. You need to speak smoothly, learn to open your mouth well, since a well-opened mouth is an important condition for the formation of sound and its “message”. Good diction prepares the speech apparatus for the creative process, makes accurate articulation of all speech sounds habitual, and helps the expressiveness of words.
The basis for the clear and accurate pronunciation of each sound, that is, the basis of diction, is the coordinated and energetic work of all muscles involved in the speech process. Educational and training exercises make it possible to develop and maintain their elasticity and mobility.
Diction training includes articulatory gymnastics:
a) exercises for warming up and training the active muscles of the speech apparatus, which develop and strengthen the muscles of the mouth, jaw, lips, tongue;
b) exercises for correctly practicing the articulatory structure of each vowel and consonant sound.
Voice
You can often hear complaints from teachers and lecturers about their voice, which “let them down” - they develop hoarseness, hoarseness, a sore throat, and their voice “sags” towards the end of the speech. Improving speech technique can correct the situation. True, there are voices supplied by nature itself, but such cases are extremely rare. And yet we can say that every person is endowed with a voice that can become strong, mobile, flexible, sonorous and have a wide range. To do this, it must be “educated”, “set”, that is, developed and strengthened.
The physical basis of voice sonority is correct breathing. Improper breathing creates insufficient sonority, which in turn changes the sound coloring of the voice. To educate and develop a voice means: a) to train the skill of correct diaphragmatic-costal breathing; b) learn to use resonators (sound amplifiers). The voice has the following properties: strength, height, duration (tempo), flight, quality (timbre). These properties of the voice, accordingly, are the condition for expressiveness. It is necessary to distinguish between sound strength and volume. The power of sound is an objective quantity that characterizes the real energy of sound... Loudness is a reflection in our consciousness of this real power of sound, that is, a subjective concept. The solution to the discrepancy between the strength and volume of sounds is the unequal sensitivity of our hearing to tones of different heights, although of equal strength. Loudness should be understood as the fullness of the voice. Changing the strength of the voice is used as one of the means of expression. You can speak loudly, moderately and quietly, depending on the content of what is being read. Reading only loudly or only quietly gives the impression of monotony. Over the course of a certain segment of speech, the tone consistently changes in pitch: it becomes higher, then lower. In order for the voice to move easily from a low tone to a high one and vice versa, it is necessary to develop its flexibility and range. The reader must study his pitch range and know its limits. It is necessary to develop a voice of average height, normal for a reader, which does not require tension. To develop your voice in terms of mobility, you need to change its duration (tempo). Through exercise you can achieve a sense of tempo, a sense of rhythm. First of all, you should develop a calm, even and smooth pace of speech. A well-produced voice is distinguished by flight. Flight is the ability of sound to fly into the distance, to spread against the background of other sounds. In addition to strength, height and duration, the sound of the voice also differs in its quality, that is, in the color of the voice - timbre. Timbre, that is, the sound coloring of the voice, as well as the strength of sound, its softness and “warmth” can improve with constant care for it with special exercises, each time individually selected for a given voice. Voice hygiene and prevention.
The speaker's vocal apparatus is very sensitive to inept use of it in difficult conditions of public speaking, to emotional, mental and physical overload. Therefore, in your daily life, always follow these rules:
1. The best way to maintain a professional sounding voice is exercise, which includes breathing and articulation exercises. If every morning after breathing exercises (10-15 minutes) you read the hexameter for 10 minutes, observing all the rules of diction, breathing and voice, this will allow you to maintain the vocal apparatus and the body as a whole in excellent working condition; Voice training creates positive emotions and encourages the creative process.
2. Do not overwork the vocal apparatus with too many speeches. The standard voice load for lecturers and teachers is no more than four consecutive academic hours per day.
3. Before the performance, it is advisable to drink a glass of warm (but not hot) tea or Borjomi. Give your muscles a rest, bringing them into a relaxed state (“pose” and “mask” of relaxation) or take 5-10 slow, calm breaths and exhalations, then get back into a working mood.
4. The condition and strength of the voice are directly related to all physiological processes occurring in the body. Therefore, we once again emphasize the importance of maintaining a correct lifestyle. Gymnastics, water treatments, sleep as needed, alternating work and rest, proper nutrition increase the body's defenses and have a beneficial effect on the vocal apparatus. Food should be varied, rich in vitamins, and limit the use of spicy seasonings. Hot food dilates the blood vessels in the pharynx, and constricts the blood vessels from cold food, both of which have a harmful effect on the vocal cords.
5. Temper the nervous system, because neuropsychic trauma, experiences, fear directly affect the voice, it begins to break down, purity, endurance, and intonation mobility are lost. Diseases of the upper respiratory tract, such as chronic runny nose, inflammation of the nasopharynx, pharynx, ligaments, certainly affect the voice. Therefore, prevention is necessary. In addition to breathing exercises and physical exercises, constantly monitor your nasopharynx. If you experience discomfort, you can gargle with chamomile infusion. To do this, brew 1-2 tablespoons of dry chamomile with a glass of boiling water, leave for about an hour and filter. The same infusion is also used for dry nose, instilling 5-6 drops into each nostril. Rinsing with an alkaline solution helps: dissolve a teaspoon of baking soda and salt on the tip of a knife in a glass of water at room temperature. You can put 5-6 drops of peach, apricot or olive oil in your mouth or nose. To harden the nasopharynx, daily rinsing with cold water with a gradual decrease in temperature from +20° to +12° is useful.
6. Smoking and drinking alcohol have a negative impact on the voice. Alcohol leads to dilation of blood vessels, thereby disrupting the functions of the glands of the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract. The vocal cords “dry out”, the voice becomes low, hoarse, and less durable. Smoking causes spasms of the smooth muscles of the trachea and bronchi, disrupting the natural breathing process. The frequent dry cough of smokers constantly injures the vocal cords, they lose elasticity, a hoarseness appears in the voice, and the lightness and softness of the sound disappears.
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Voice formation
In every language on our planet there is a specific number of sounds that create the acoustic image of the language. The sound finds meaning only in the scheme of sentences and helps to distinguish one letters from others. This sound is called a phoneme of the language. All sounds of a language differ in articulatory characteristics, that is, their difference comes from the formation of sounds in the human speech apparatus. And by acoustic characteristics - by differences in sound.
The voice can be considered the result of the hard work of the muscles of various components of the peripheral speech apparatus. Three of its departments contribute to the formation of sound:
- respiratory, otherwise energetic - includes the lungs, bronchi, trachea and throat;
- voice-forming department, otherwise generator - the larynx along with sound cords and muscles;
- sound-producing, otherwise resonator - the cavity of the oropharynx and nose.
The work of these departments of the speech apparatus in complete symbiosis can only occur through the central control of speech and voice-forming processes. This suggests that the respiratory process, articulatory mechanism and sound formation are completely controlled by the human nervous system. Its impact also extends to peripheral processes:
- the functioning of the respiratory organs regulates the power of the voice;
- the functioning of the oral cavity is responsible for the formation of vowels and consonants and for the difference in the articulatory process during their formation;
- The nose section provides adjustment of the overtones of the sound.
The central speech apparatus occupies a key place in the formation of the voice. The human jaw and lips, palate and supraglottic lobe, pharynx and lungs are all involved in the process. The air flow leaving the body, going further through the larynx and passing through the mouth and nose is the source of sound. On its way, the air passes through the vocal cords. If they are relaxed, then the sound is not formed and passes freely. If they are close and tense, the air creates vibration as it passes. The result of this process is sound. And then, with the work of the movable organs of the oral cavity, the direct formation of letters and words occurs.
Linguistics
The term speech apparatus (i.e., a set of speech organs, which include: lips, teeth, tongue, palate, small tongue, epiglottis, nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchi - lungs, diaphragm) should be understood conditionally.Since language is a social phenomenon and not a biological one, there are no “speech organs” by nature. All of these organs have direct biological functions such as the organs of smell, taste, breathing, eating and processing food. This is created by nature. The use of these organs for the production of speech sounds is entirely the merit of humanity, which gave them an additional “cultural load”.
F. Engels wrote: “...The emerging people came to the point where they had a need to say something
each other. The need created its own organ: the undeveloped larynx of the monkey was slowly but steadily transformed through modulation into an increasingly developed modulation, and the organs of the mouth gradually learned to pronounce one articulate sound after another.”1
For the formation of speech sounds, the same conditions are needed as for the formation of sounds in general: a driving force, a body whose vibrations will produce tones and noises, and a resonator to form the timbre of sounds.
The source of the formation of most speech sounds, i.e., the driving force, is a stream of air pushed from the lungs through the bronchi, trachea through the larynx and then through the pharynx and oral cavity (or nose) to the outside. Thus, the human speech apparatus is similar to wind instruments, consisting of bellows (in humans, the lungs), a “tongue” or other body capable of rhythmic vibrations that produces tone (in humans, the vocal cords in the larynx), and an extension pipe or resonator ( in humans - the cavity of the pharynx, mouth and nose). However, the human speech apparatus is much richer in its capabilities than any instrument, and, perhaps, all instruments combined, as can be judged by a person’s onomatopoeic abilities.
The entire speech apparatus linguistically, that is, from the point of view of the formation of speech sounds, can be divided into three parts: 1) everything below the larynx, 2) the larynx and 3) everything above the larynx.
The lower floor of the speech apparatus, consisting of two lungs, two bronchi and a trachea, acts as a bellows and forces a stream of exhaled air through the tension of the muscles of the diaphragm (or the abdominal barrier), necessary for the formation of sounds as a driving force; It is impossible to form speech sounds in the lower level of the speech apparatus.
The middle floor - the larynx - consists of two large cartilages: the cricoid (in the form of a ring, the signet of which faces backwards) and the thyroid cartilage placed on it (in the form of two shields connected in front and protruding at an angle forward). These two cartilages form the skeleton of the larynx, inside of which muscular films are stretched obliquely from the top of the front part to the bottom of the back part in the form of a curtain, converging in two halves to the middle, and the upper edges of this curtain are attached to the inner walls of the thyroid cartilage, and the lower ones to the small pyramidal, or arytenoid, cartilages, which have the shape of triangles and can also move apart and move towards the center; below, the pyramidal cartilages are attached to the inner wall of the “signet” of the cricoid cartilage (see Fig. 3).
Rice. 3.
The central edges of the curtain of muscular film are called the vocal cords. The vocal cords are very muscular and elastic and can be shortened and stretched, moved apart to different widths, and also be relaxed and tense. The space between the vocal cords is called the interligamentous cleft; the space formed between the pyramidal cartilages diverging to the sides is called the intercartilaginous cleft. Both of these slits together form the glottis, the upper, larger part of which is located between the ligaments, and the lower, smaller part, between the pyramidal cartilages. The glottis can be open in full length or partially: either only between the ligaments, or only between the pyramidal cartilages.
Rice. 4.
The stream of air emerging from the trachea must pass through the cricoid cartilage and glottis; in this case, the following positions in the larynx are possible (see Fig. 4):
1. Both slits are wide open; This is how free breathing occurs without speech: when inhaling, the gap is opened wider, when exhaling, it is slightly narrower (position 1
– inhale, position
2 –
exhale).
2. Both slits are slightly apart, and a stream of air, passing into a narrow gap, rubs against relaxed ligaments and pyramidal cartilages, which creates a guttural rustling sound, aspiration (position 3
)1.
3. Both slits are closed; To enter the resonator, a stream of air needs to break through this obstacle, as a result of which a click occurs in the larynx, or, in other words, a laryngeal explosion (“knakla2ut”1) - a sound that is pronounced in German before the vowels that begin the word (position 4).
4. The interligamentous space is closed, and the intercartilaginous space is open; this is how a whisper arises (position 5
).
5. The intercartilaginous gap is closed, and the interligamentous one is slightly open in the upper part, the tense top of the ligaments, oscillating from the movement of the air stream, produces very high sounds - this is falsetto (position 6
).
6. The intercartilaginous gap is closed, and the interligamentous gap is slightly open, and (in contrast to the position 3)
the ligaments are tense, and the air passing into the interligamentous gap does not rustle, but vibrates the vocal cords (the vocal cords vibrate), which causes the formation of a voice (position
7
).
For speech sounds you can use: position 3
(glottal aspiration without a voice, in German
Haus,
in English
house -
“house”, and with a voice, in Ukrainian
head,
in Czech
hrad -
“castle”);
position 4
(a guttural explosion without a voice, in German
Knacklaut:
[ [email protected] ] – Apfel) and position
7
(a voice that can join any noise formed in the mouth, voicing it), this is how voiced consonants are formed [b], [v], [d], [h], [g], [d], and also sound without noise, ringing and enhancing resonator tones (which happens with normal vowel pronunciation).
Whisper and falsetto (positions 5
and
6
) can be used in speech as expressive means (especially whisper), but for the language they are the same sounds, and these positions cannot distinguish between sounds - something that is important for language.
The source of the formation of the entire wealth of speech sounds is the upper floor of the speech apparatus - the extension pipe, the resonator, where overtones and resonator tones are formed, as well as noise from air friction against adjacent organs or from the explosion of closed organs.
The supernatant tube begins with the pharyngeal cavity (pharynx), where the cartilage of the epiglottis is located, and is further divided into two exit tubes - two cavities: the oral and nasal; These two cavities are separated by the palate, the front part of which is hard, this is the hard palate (bone, palatum [palatum]); the back part of the palate is soft, this is the soft palate (boneless, velum palati [velum palati]), otherwise it is the palatine curtain, ending with a small tongue (uvula [uvula]).
If the soft palate is raised and the small tongue is pressed against the back wall of the pharynx, then air cannot pass into the nose and must go through the mouth (then the sounds of oral resonance, or oral sounds, are obtained); if the soft palate is lowered and the small uvula is advanced, air can pass through the nose and exit through the nostrils (then the sounds of nasal resonance, or nasal sounds, are produced).
Speech (or phonation) breathing differs from ordinary, non-speech breathing in that when we breathe, not speak, exhalation is equal to inhalation, they follow rhythmically one after another, and we exhale all the air from the lungs in one breath; when we speak, we inhale during pauses, and then exhale gradually, in separate bursts (see below).
The nasal cavity is a resonator that does not change in volume and shape, giving the sound, when it is turned on, a nasal (nasal) timbre, for example, with the sounds [m], [n] or with French and Polish nasal vowels.
The oral cavity, on the contrary, can change its shape and volume in every possible way due to the presence of movable organs: lips, tongue, small uvula, soft palate and, in some cases, the epiglottis.
Of the lips, the lower one has greater mobility, which can close with the upper lip (as with the sounds [p] [b] [m]) or form a labial constriction with it (as in the formation of English [w] or when extinguishing a candle), the lips can also tremble (mainly the lower lip; as when pronouncing the word mnpy!);
both lips can be pulled out into a tube (as with [y]) or rounded into a ring (as with [o]); finally, the lower lip can form a gap, approaching the upper front teeth (as with [f], (v)).
The tongues are the most mobile of the organs included in the human speech apparatus. It consists of a root (the base by which the tongue is attached to the hyoid bone) and a dorsum, divided into posterior, middle and anterior parts; You can especially highlight the tip of the tongue.
Different parts of the tongue have different degrees of mobility: the tip has the greatest mobility, which can rest on the lower teeth, forming an interdental gap with the upper teeth (as with the English sounds depicted in the letter th),
can be pressed against the back wall of the front upper teeth (as with Russian dental22 x [t], [d], [n], [l], [ts]), to the edge of the upper gum (as with German gingival1 [t], [d] ], [n], [I], [ts]), to the alveolar tubercles at the roots of the upper teeth (as with English alveolar [t], [d], [n], [1]);
can bend upward towards the hard palate (as in the special cerebral 3 Indian and some other eastern languages [t], [d], [n], [1]); can form constrictions in the same places (as with different s
and
z
), can tremble near the hard palate (as with Russian
r )
or be lowered down (as usually happens when pronouncing vowels).
The front part of the back of the tongue can rise without the participation of the tip to the hard palate, forming a narrowing with it (with a flat surface, as with the Russian coronal [sh], [z], or with a curved hump surface, as with the corresponding dorsal French and English sounds).
The middle part of the tongue is most limited in its movements; without movement of the front or back part, it can only rise to the hard palate, forming a narrowing with it (as with th
[j]) or closing with it (as with Northern Great Russian sounds in place of [k] and [g] soft in the words
hands, feet,
sounding [ruhi, noØi], see below, § 30).
The back of the tongue can close with the hard and soft palate, rising vertically or moving anteriorly or posteriorly (as with different
and
g
), or form narrowings with the same movements (as with different types of
x ).
In addition, rising in its different parts to one or another level and without forming a closure or narrowing with the palate, the tongue can block the oral cavity, thereby dividing the mouth into two resonating cavities with different volumes and different shapes, which creates different resonance conditions, and this is especially important when pronouncing vowels (see § 31), which is also facilitated by the raising and lowering of the lower movable jaw, which changes the opening of the mouth with these movements.
The small tongue may quiver intermittently, closing with the back of the tongue (as in one of the varieties of French [r] - this is a burr, or uvular, r
).
The epiglottis, otherwise epiglottis (pear-shaped or, more precisely, leaf-shaped cartilage, located in the pharynx under the root of the tongue above the larynx, hence the name epiglottis), serves physiologically to cover the larynx during the passage of food into the esophagus, but can also be used as an organ of speech . Not having its own muscles, the epiglottis is connected with the rich muscles of the hyoid bone, due to which it can not only cover the larynx, but also form a narrowing with the posterior wall of the pharynx (this happens with special, “squeezed” by ear, epiglottis, or epiglottal, consonants of Arabic language).
So: 1) the diaphragm, lungs, bronchi and trachea are the source of the air stream, which is used as a driving force in the formation of speech sounds; 2) the larynx is the source of voice (needed differently for voiced consonants and vowels) and special guttural noises (glottal aspiration and glottal plosive) and 3) the supernasal tube - the mouth and nose - is the source of overtones and resonator tones; In addition, various noises arise in the oral cavity when the organs close and narrow.
Structural components of speech
Responsible for speech function:
- The sensory speech center is the perception of speech sounds, based on the sound discrimination system of the language; Wernicke's area in the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for this process.
- The center of motor speech - Broca's area is responsible for it, thanks to it it is possible to reproduce sounds, words and phrases.
In this regard, in clinical psychology there is the concept of impressive speech, in other words, the understanding and presentation of oral and written speech. There is also the concept of expressive speech - that which is spoken out loud accompanied by a certain tempo, rhythm, and emotions.
In the process of speech formation, each person should have a clear understanding of the following subsystems of their native language:
- phonetics (what syllables, sound combinations can be, their correct structure and combination);
- syntax (understanding exactly how the relationships and combinations between words occur);
- vocabulary (knowledge of the vocabulary of the language)
- semantics (the ability to understand the meaning of words long before acquiring pronunciation skills);
- pragmatics (relationships between sign systems and those who use them).
The phonological component of a language means knowledge of the semantic units of the language (phonemes). Physically, speech sounds can be divided into noises (consonants) and tones (vowels). Any language is based on a certain distinctive feature; if you change one of them, the meaning of the word will change dramatically. The main semantic distinguishing features include deafness and sonority, softness and hardness, as well as stress and unstress. It is these features that act as the basis of the phonemes of the language system. Each language has a different number of semantic units, usually from 11 to 141.
The Russian language involves the use of 42 phonemes, in particular, 6 vowels and 36 consonants.
It has been scientifically proven that any healthy infant in the first year of life has the ability to reproduce 75 different shortest sound units, in other words, can learn any language. But, most often, children at the initial stages of their development are in only one language environment, so over time they lose the ability to reproduce sounds that do not belong to their native Russian language.
2.3. Formation of speech sounds (articulation)
Only general anatomical and physiological information regarding the formation of speech sounds is presented here. A detailed description of the articulation of individual sounds is included in the speech therapy course.
The peculiarity of the extension pipe of the human vocal apparatus in comparison with the extension pipe of a reed musical instrument is that it not only amplifies the voice and gives it an individual coloring (timbre), but also serves as a place for the formation of speech sounds.
Some parts of the extension tube (nasal cavity, hard palate, posterior wall of the pharynx) are motionless and are called passive organs of pronunciation.
Other parts (lower jaw, lips, tongue, soft palate) are movable and are called
active organs of pronunciation.
When the lower jaw moves, the mouth opens or closes. Various movements of the tongue and lips change the shape of the oral cavity, forming closures or crevices in different places of the oral cavity. The soft palate, rising and pressing against the back wall of the pharynx, closes the entrance to the nose, falling - opens it.
The activity of active organs of pronunciation, which is called articulation,
and ensures the formation
of speech sounds,
i.e.
phonemes.
The acoustic features of speech sounds, which make it possible to distinguish them from each other by ear, are determined by the features of their articulation.
The phoneme system of the Russian language consists of 42 sounds, including 6 vowels (a, i, o, u, ы, e) and 36 consonants (b, b', v, v', g, g', d, d' , g, h, 3′, j (iot), k, k', l, l', m, m', n, n', p, p', p, p', s, s', t, t', f, f', x, x', c, h, w, sch).
Vowel articulation. A common feature for all vowel sounds that distinguishes their articulation from the articulation of all consonant sounds is the absence of obstacles in the path of exhaled air. The sound arising in the larynx in the extension pipe is amplified and perceived as a clear voice without any admixture of noise. The sound of a voice, as has been said, consists of a fundamental tone and a number of additional tones - overtones. In the extension pipe, not only the fundamental tone is amplified, but also overtones, and not all overtones are amplified equally: depending on the shape of the resonating cavities, mainly the oral cavity and partly the pharynx, some frequency regions are amplified more, others less, and some frequencies are not amplified at all. These enhanced frequency regions, or formants, characterize the acoustic properties of various vowels.
