Introduction
Our speech apparatus, from the lungs to the various organs in the mouth, was not originally built for the purpose of speech. Our lungs provide the cells in the body with oxygen and expel carbon dioxide produced by their cellular processes. Our larynx, what is called the voice box, was not primarily built for the purpose of producing sound; it is there to close off the passage of food into the lungs while eating (It is also closed off when we need to suppress air from the lungs in strenuous action, like when we pick up heavy items). Our mouth organs, the tongue and teeth and lips, were to help with an initial processing of food. However, “in the course of evolution, all the organs of speech have developed in very specialized ways often quite remote from their original purpose” (Collins and Mees 2013, p.29).
We are going to begin this section by taking a look at how speech is produced, the study of which falls under the purview of phonetics. We will start our journey from
