The basic concept of the success in the UMAR training program in puberphonia.
Dr M Kumaresan 9841055774.
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The function of the Respiratory system is to provide the air stream which is the basis for the production of speech sounds. It is the air stream that acts as a source of energy and is modified by the speech organs as it passes in and out of the lungs during the normal course of breathing. Besides the lungs there are other organs that can also provide an air stream for the production of speech sounds e.g. the glottis and the velum. The glottalic air stream is the air stream above the glottis which is closed for the production of sounds using this air stream. Similarly, sounds produced with the air in front of the velum or the soft palate. The passage of air from the lungs is blocked by the back of the tongue which makes firm contact with the velum.
Velaric air stream. A large number of African languages and some languages make use of these air streams for the production of speech Indian languages only Sindhi uses the glottalic air stream mechanism on of some speech sounds.
A number of sounds are produced at the soft palate. For example, the Hindi sounds and क म रख and. When we produce these sounds the velum acts in two ways simultaneously. Firstly, it comes into contact with the back of the tongue which moves towards it to make a complete closure and secondly, the soft palate itself is raised to make a closure with the back wall of the pharynx. The first closure is known as a velar closure and the second closure is known as a velic closure.
Before we talk about the description and classification of speech sounds, it is important for us to be aware of an important distinction between active and passive articulators. Active articulators are those organs of speech that can move and passive articulators are those organs of speech that cannot move. In the production of speech sounds the active articulators move from their position of rest towards the passive articulators. For example, in the production of the t, d, s,n sounds, the tip and blade of the tongue move from their position of rest, to articulate against the teeth ridge. As the lower jaw is movable, while the upper jaw is not, the active articulators are located mostly in the lower jaw and the passive articulators in the upper jaw. There is however, an exception to this. The soft palate is both an active and a passive articulator. When it is raised to shut off the nasal passage of air for the proof oral sounds it is an active, articulator. When the back of the tongue is rais makes contact with the velum to produce sounds such as the initial consonants in the English words, call and get, the velun is a passive articulator. The velum is indeed an exception to the rule.
