LING 200 Quiz 1 Notes

Vibrating Vocal Folds

  • Vocal folds vibrate rapidly when brought close together, as air passes between them.
  • Sounds produced with vibrating vocal folds are called voiced.
  • Vowels are typically produced with vocal fold vibration, but many consonants also share this characteristic (e.g., [m], [z], [l], [v]).
  • Voiceless vowels can be produced, such as when whispering.
  • In some languages, vowels can become devoiced (voiceless) between voiceless consonants.

Subsystems of the Vocal Tract

  • Sublaryngeal System: Structures below the larynx.
    • Examples: Trachea, lungs, diaphragm.
  • Laryngeal System: The larynx itself.
    • Examples: Vocalis muscle, thyroid cartilage, arytenoid cartilages.
  • Supralaryngeal System: Structures above the larynx.
    • Examples: Nasal cavity, pharynx, uvula, epiglottis.
  • The trachea (windpipe) connects the larynx to the lungs, making it part of the sublaryngeal system.
  • The pharynx (pharyngeal cavity) is the space above the larynx and part of the supralaryngeal system.
  • The epiglottis protrudes from the tongue’s root into the pharynx and is part of the supralaryngeal system.

Airstream Mechanism

  • The most common method for moving air through the vocal tract in speech production is pushing air out from the lungs.
  • The technical term for this is pulmonic egressive.

Identifying Parts of the Vocal Tract

  • Epiglottis: 7
  • Soft palate (velum): 5
  • Alveolar ridge: 3
  • Tongue root: 14
  • Tongue blade: 10
  • Upper front teeth: 2
  • The soft palate is labeled 5, while the uvula is labeled 6.
  • The tongue blade is represented by 10, and the tongue tip by 9.

Organs of Speech

  • False: No body part's sole function is speech production; they all have primary biological functions.
  • Every component of the vocal tract has a primary function other than speech and is secondarily adapted for speech.

Controlling Pitch

  • The larynx is responsible for controlling the pitch of the voice, which is a primary linguistic function.

The Velar Port

  • False: Sounds like [m] and [n], where air flows through the nasal tract, are produced with the velum lowered.
  • A lowered velum opens the velar port, allowing airflow into the nasal tract.

Active vs. Passive Articulators

  • Active Articulators: Move toward passive articulators to constrict and shape the airstream.
    • Examples: tongue root, lower lip.
  • Passive Articulators: Do not actively move.
    • Examples: hard palate, upper lip, velum.
  • The lower lip is more mobile than the upper lip, and thus considered the active articulator while the upper lip is passive.
  • The labeling of vocal tract parts as articulators refers to forming constrictions in the oral cavity.
  • The velum is considered passive because, even in velar sounds (like [k] or [ŋ]), the tongue body moves to form closure against it, not the velum moving to meet the tongue.
  • "Active articulator" does not simply mean "movable anatomy."