3) Process of communication, speech chain of communication, speech production, phonetics and phonology

**Process of communication**

A social exchange of meaning consisting of several conditions and essential constituents.

**Physiological conditions of communication**

Conditions needed for communication consisting of physically developed speech organs such as vocal cords, teeth, lips, trained tongues, and an essential brain.

**Mental conditions of communication**

Conditions consisting of the human realisation that speech organs can be consciously used to make desired sounds.

**Body language**

A form of communication consisting heavily of gestures made by the hands, which developed as people started walking on their lower limbs.

**Constituents of communication**

The fundamental elements required for communication, consisting of at least one emitter (sender), at least one recipient, participants, contents (the message or idea), a code, a channel or contact, and a context.

**Speech event**

A communication instance consisting of a speaker, an addressee, a code, a message, a contact, and a context.

**Communication errors**

Interruptions or mistakes in the communication chain consisting of issues with the idea, coding, audience mismatch, language mistakes (wrong signs, phonetic or lexicology errors), sending issues, noise, receiving problems, and decoding mistakes.

**Encoding**

The production of a message consisting of a system of coded meanings where the sender formats the idea so it is comprehensible to the audience.

**Decoding**

A process consisting of the interpretation and translation of coded information into a comprehensible form, where the audience reconstructs the idea by giving meaning to symbols.

**Functions of language**

The diverse purposes of language consisting of the informing function, persuasive function, entertainment function, group membership expression, emotional function, and social function.

**Linguistic level (Speaker)**

The initial stage of speech production consisting of the speaker's brain conceptualising a thought, selecting words, and arranging them into sentences.

**Physiological level (Articulatory)**

The second stage of speech production consisting of the brain sending neural commands to vocal muscles to move and produce speech sounds.

**Acoustic level**

The intermediate stage of communication consisting of airflow from the lungs passing through the vocal tract to generate sound waves that travel through the air.

**Physiological level (Auditory)**

The initial stage of reception consisting of the listener's ear receiving sound waves and converting them into neural signals.

**Linguistic level (Listener)**

The final stage of reception consisting of the listener's brain processing neural signals and interpreting sounds as meaningful language.

**Phonetics**

A technical linguistic discipline consisting of the study of the production of sounds (articulatory phonetics) and the perception of sounds (acoustic/auditory phonetics).

**Sound**

The basic unit of phonetics representing the actual acoustic output that we hear and say.

**International Phonetic Association (IPA)**

An association established in 1886 consisting of people dedicated to observing how the production and perception of sounds work.

**International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)**

A universal phonemic chart created in 1888 consisting of a universal list of all existing sounds across languages.

**Phonetic transcription**

A detailed transcription written in square brackets consisting of phonemes, specific allophones, and the placement of stress.

**Phonology**

A linguistic discipline dealing with the function of sounds in a language system, rather than their physical production.

**Phoneme**

The basic unit of phonology with a contrastive function, consisting of a set of distinctive features capable of changing the meaning of a word.

**Minimal pairs**

Word pairs consisting of words that differ in exactly one sound, which proves that the differentiating sound is a phoneme.

**Phonemic transcription**

A basic transcription written in slash brackets consisting strictly of phonemes without allophonic variations.

**Allophone**

A specific phonetic variety of one phoneme, consisting of different physical realisations like the dark "l" versus clear "l", or aspirated versus non-aspirated consonants.

**Suprasegmental phonology**

A branch of phonology operating above the level of individual sound segments in connected speech, consisting of intonation, stress, linking (reductions and assimilations), and rhythm.

**Classification of sounds (PMV)**

The categorisation of English sounds consisting of the Place of articulation (where in the vocal tract it is produced), Manner of articulation (how it is produced), and the presence or absence of Voice.

**Articulators**

The seven parts of the vocal tract used to produce speech, consisting of the nose, upper and lower teeth, upper and lower lips, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard and soft palate, pharynx, and larynx.

**Vocal cords (folds)**

Two thick flaps of muscle located in the larynx that can either vibrate to produce voiced sounds or remain apart for voiceless sounds.

**Glottis**

The opening between the vocal cords that can adopt various positions, such as wide apart, narrow, vibrating, or tightly closed.

**Glottal stop**

A specific sound mechanism consisting of the vocal folds being tightly closed so that air cannot pass.

**Eggressive pulmonic airstream**

The most important airstream mechanism for speaking, consisting of air moving outward from the lungs as the rib cage moves downwards.

**Consonants**

Speech sounds consisting of strictures or obstructions in the vocal tract that stop or narrow the outward airstream.

**Vowels**

Voiced speech sounds consisting of an uninterrupted airstream without any obstruction in the vocal tract.

**Subglottal pressure**

The air pressure located below the vocal cords, consisting of variable intensity (volume), variable frequency (speed of vibrations), and voice quality (such as hashing, murmuring, creaky, or breathy voice).